Sorakage
by DarknessandtheLight
Summary: The world is never as it seems. Monsters not really monsters, and people you know turning out to be different people than you thought they were.Altered Storyline, though trying to be true to story as possible. CHAPTER FOUR, NOW UP! yay!
1. PROLOGUE: The Sky Weeps

Disclaimer: Ok now look, as far as I know I do not own Naruto. If I did I would have money, and I would be able to continue going to college. So...yea...I don't own Naruto...cuz I have no money...sad ;o;

PROLOGUE-THE SKY WEEPS SAD AND BLOODY TEARS

On the Earth in the depths of Fire country, there was a hidden ninja village. In this world, there are villages that thrive off of the profits made by their ninjas. Each village would take a job and have its ninjas perform that job, may it be assassinations which ninja are more looked at for, escorts, or a number of any other services. Most don't know what would one expect when you think about a "ninja" village, though they would probably think the village is made entirely of ninjas and is a ninja hierarchy. However in actuality, a ninja village is not all that different from any other normal village.

There are still schools, restaurants, grocery stores, there are markets, and other miscellaneous shops that are owned and run by normal everyday people. The only difference being that the ninja villages government is different, being the most powerful or adept ninja being the highest position (The Kage) and a council that decides who the next leader should be. Of course, being that there are normal people in a village, the villagers have a certain...naivety when it comes to the affairs of the ninja world. They can't understand the way some things work and understand the difference between good and evil...

"N-A-R-U-T-O!" came a scream from an extremely irrate thin and blonde haired girl. She was stomping around when she saw a man laying down on a grassy hill looking up into the sky and stomped right up to him.

The man looked up at her and began to ask, "What is it-"

"WHERE IS HE?"

"Where is who-?"

"NARUTO, YOU LAZY BUM! I WOKE UP AND FOUND MY ENTIRE WARDROBE ORANGE EXCEPT FOR MY TRAINING CLOTHES!"

The man sighs and looks back up in the sky, "Troublesome. He's still on his training trip. He's been gone for three years-"

At this the girl deflated instantly, "Wha...why? I knew I haven't been seeing him around but I just thought he's been on missions."

The man shakes his head again, "Really, you should pay more attention to our other comrades Ino."

Ino humphed and kicks him in the side, "Shikamaru you are SO lucky im not in the mood to hurt you right now."

She walks off as Shikamaru winces and rubs his side, "Too late for that, troublesome woman."

It was a sunny, average day, only enough clouds for a certain lazy man to be happy, a nice breeze, and happy commerce of people in the streets. "Naruto should be back today right?" speaks a blond haired woman as she watches the people in the streets from a large window in the tower.

"That WAS what the letter said, Tsunade-sama." Spoke a near shoulder-length brown haired woman.

The blonde haired woman named Tsunade turned around and spoke to the other woman, "Shizune, are the rooms in the hospital ready?"

Shizune nodded, "Yes Tsunade, all three rooms are ready."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "Three Shizune?"

The woman in question smiled, "He DID say he'd be bringing a GUEST Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade hummed and looked out the window, "I was hoping Jiraiya had convinced him NOT to go after Sasuke."

Shizune looked at her sympathetically, "Tsunade-sama, you have to trust him or you are gonna get wrinkles!"

Tsunade gets a tic on the top of her forehead, "Thank you Shizune..."

In the middle of the village a small group of people were seen walking into a barbeque restaurant. A pink haired girl giggled, "I can't believe all of your clothes are orange Ino."

Ino turned to her and growled, "Watch it Forehead girl, I may just have those boys come dye your hair orange."

At this the pink haired girl's eyes widened at the prospect while the silver haired man with one eye covered smiled, "Sakura with orange hair? How interesting."

The girl, Sakura, turned to the man scandalized, "Kakashi-sensei! How could you even think of that?" she got a tic in her forehead as she sees he is reading an orange book and ignoring her.

"Im sorry Sakura. Were you saying something?" Kakashi smiles at her.

Before she could retort the red eyed woman next to Kakashi sighs, "You really need to put that book away Kakashi-san."

Kakashi turns to the woman and replies, "Aww. Kurenai-chan is jealous that everyone reads this instead of paying attention to her."

Kurenai puffs her cheeks, "Really Kakashi, not EVERY guy reads that smut. Right Asuma?" She turns to the man smoking behind them who coughs in response much to her chagrin. She then looks to the guy in green spandex and was about to say at least HE doesn't, but stopped, bad idea to get him started so she just left it at that as the entire group of fourteen people: nine genin, one chuunin, and four jounin at a large table.

The man in spandex turns to Kakashi and grins, "Kakashi my eternal rival! After our meal shall we have another contest? If I should lose I shall climb the Hokage tower with nothing but my teeth!"

Kakashi blinks and turns to him, "I'm sorry Gai, were you saying something?"

Gai suddenly gets tears in his eyes, "That was a hip and modern response Kakashi! Worthy of my eternal rival!"

So the meal began, the occupants of the table being the teams of Kurenai: Hinata, Kiba, Shino; Asuma: Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji; Gai: Tenten, Lee, Neji; and Sakura who was all that was left of Kakashi's team.

As they were exiting a chuunin walked up to Kakashi and bowed, "Kakashi-san, i have urgent news for you..." Kakashi raised an eyebrow and everyone became silent. "Alright...go on.." The chuunin nodded and began speaking, "Jiraiya-sama has just returned not but 4 hours ago, but The Uzumaki boy was not with him. Recently however, scouts have seen the boy approaching the village but he is moving at a slugs pace." At this everyone went alert, it was Neji who spoke next, "From which gate is he approaching?" The chuunin replied, "The northern gate..." At that everyone broke into a run to the gate. When they got there the gate was already opened and they saw a distorted figure walking through.

As the they got closer they noticed that it was an orange AND dark blue figure. When they finally reached them the blue and orange figure looked up at them. The entire group just stopped in their tracks at the sight. They did not hear the added foot steps as Tsuande, Jiraiya, Shizune, and many other ninja including medic-nins show up next to them, who all also stopped dead.

There before them staggering was Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. As they both looked up at the group Naruto grinned "See...did I not say I would bring him back?" he said as Sasuke grunted and they both passed out, the groups voices faded out.

Darkness...nothing but darkness

"Where...am I?" a speck of light appeared in the vast darkness. "Where am I going?" Suddenly the light flashed and Cerulean blue eyes snapped open.

"About time you woke up."

The eyes turned to a figure with blonde hair and a diamond shape on forehead. "You gave us a scare, Naruto."

Naruto sat up and clutched his head, "Ow...how long have I been here obaa-chan?"

"Obaa-chan" got a vein on her forehead but didn't hit him since he was in the hospital. (A/N: NICE BRAKES) "You have been in here for three days. Believe it or not Sasuke was already cleared a day ago."

At this Naruto smiled, "How is he Obaa-chan?"

Tsunade looked at him with a small smile, "You will be happy to know that the seal was disrupting his judgement, and now that its been...burned off, he is pretty much back to normal."

Naruto sighed happily, "Alright! It's about time I get some ramen then." He jumps up and looks at her, "That is if I can go."

Tsunade waved a hand, "Fine fine, your more than capable of being on your own."

Naruto smiled and exclaimed, "ALRIGHT! Thanks OBAA-NEE-CHAN!" and he jumped out the window. Tsunade just looked out the window before grinning to herself with a shake of the head and walked out.

The road to the ramen stand was bright, insanely bright, and Naruto was lighting it with a huge grin paying no heed to the glares of the villagers. As Naruto looks forward, he sees a pink haired girl walking in his direction, "OI SAKURA-CHAN!"

As the girl, Sakura reached him, Naruto's face moved swiftly to the side with a hand print on his face.

"You...you...!"

After hearing the venomous tone he turned back to her to see probably the worst thing he could imagine seeing. "Sakura-ch-" KERSMACK! And he got another to the other side.

"Sasuke-kun was in the hospital for nearly two days because of you! how DARE you do that to him!"

Naruto growled a bit, "But he..."

"YOU MONSTER!"

Naruto's eyes widen as he looks around at all the villagers who are all advancing.

"WE KNEW YOU HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE UCHIHA'S CONDITION." Villagers were grabbing anything they could, wooden poles, brooms, some even had rocks or weapons. Naruto looked to where Sakura is...WAS standing...and saw that she was already down the road. Then he felt a rock pelt his cheek as he turned all the villagers were running at him. So he did the only thing he could without hurting them...he ran.

And he ran. Not just for a few blocks or just to the edge of the village...he was out of the village, into the forest, and as far as his legs would take him. The villagers had stopped at the very edge of the woods, screams like, "NEVER COME BACK!" and "WE WILL KILL YOU MONSTER!" were heard.

"Was...this supposed to happen?" asked an unknown figure with a deep voice. "No...this was not foreseen." Stated a light feminine voice. "I see...then we must move our time tables...the other organization will be quick to react."

"So we are moving ahead earlier sir?" asked the second voice.

"Yes, hopefully we will be able to make this work in time."

"I have a plan sir," stated a new but lighter feminine voice.

"Oh, and what do you have for us?" the man asked

"Its an information gathering mission sir." state the new voice.

The man hummed and looked to the new voice, "And how will this mission be completed?"

The new voices snickers, "Through infiltration sir."

The man thinks for a second and then nods to her, "Fine, make your preparations."

As the woman leaves the man turns to the others in the room that were silent until now, "And what do we do about the boy council?"

One of the people on the "council" stood, "Rehabilitate the boy. Restore all memory and any physical alterations that were made. We will allow him to decide afterwards."

The man nods and disappears, and the woman stays behind and looks to the council, "This is not what he wanted and you know it."

Another of the council, a woman, replies,"We know this Hono'o-sama, but this time we can not just put him back when the war is so close. We are now out of time and have no more time to waste. The evolution of those people is far enough."

The woman now known as "Hono'o" sighs, "Its not my problem if he gets mad then." And she too vanishes. This left the council murmuring to each other until the man in the center silenced them, "That is enough, we have no more time for debate, we must act now." they all replied, "HAI!"

In a dark part of a forest clearing three figures can be seen standing. The slightly taller one speaks, "Are you aware of your mission?"

The two other figures nod one having deep violet eyes and the other having bright amber eyes that show through the darkness.

"Then you must be on your way, report after your mission is deemed complete."

The two other figures vanish. As the last remaining figure turns around, moonlight hits her face and is seen that the figure is a red-haired woman who then turns and runs off in the direction of the mountain-side.

Inside a steel colored room a couple of people are seen looking through a viewing glass into a room that seems to have energy flying all around it and then concentrate in small waves around a figure that is strapped on a table that is reclined at a forty-five degree angle. One figure was a boy who had dark brown hair with an equally dark and large gourd on his back, while the other looked to be a young girl with dark blue hair with a lighter blue kimono. The door to the room opens and the woman with dark red hair and now seen equally red eyes walk in and walk up to the two people. "How much longer?"

The boy turned to her and reply, "Four days to go Hono'o-sama. He is progressing nicely we were told."

The woman now identified as Hono'o nods and looks into the glass. (A/N: Imagine the camera panning and zooming into the room and into the figure inside.) "Not much longer eh...Naruto-sama?"

Naruto doesn't reply as he is unconscious with blue lightning flickering about his body as his face grimaces. (A/N: insert dramatic music)

A/N: It appears to be a little quick...but I didn't want to just JUMP into a story...yet I didn't want to take forever...so sorry if this is kinda throwing stuff off and seems a bit simple...ill try to make it better in the future.


	2. CHAPTER 1: Omens of Light and Darkness

Disclaimer: Don't own . . . will never own . . . blah blah blah blah.

_Also, all translations to any Japanese words will be noted at the end of the chapter, for those of you who can't access any word translating material, or are just to lazy to look words up._

Chapter 1: Omens of Light and Darkness

"This has been quite the foggy morning. I don't know if I like it all that much."

This day of all days had been unusually foggy outside the walls of Konoha. The two guards that were posted at the Eastern Gate shivered in the chilly early morning air as they pass small talk about the fog.

"It is sort of strange, but it's just fog, don't try to read into it too much," responded the second guard to the first.

"I suppose so, it's just unsettling yet as ninjas we know we can use the mist to conceal ourselves. But you know there are many who can use it against us as well,"

The second guard just stared at the first for a second, "Ok, now you're just paranoid."

He seemed slightly hurt at his companion's statement, "Hey, we can easily die at any moment!"

The second guard sucked his teeth, "Please, the only ones who are going to pass through here are-" He stopped, as something beginning to stir in the mist got his attention.

Both guards looked around. They could make out the faded and shadowy silhouettes of two figures slowly walking toward them. The sounds of their steps echoed against the stillness of the morning.

As they got closer, the guards at the gate could distinguish the sounds of each of the silhouettes' steps. One sounded light, and with each step a light clang of metal against stone rang out. The other was heavier, and a faint ringing sounded constantly. The guards' hands slowly made their way to their weapons, ready to strike at any given moment.

Moments passed, and eventually the figures came into view. Two young men, one dressed all in white, and one all in black.

The one in white wore something similar to a ninja's tactical vest over a plain white shirt, with white tactical pants. Right below his amber eyes, covering the bottom half of his face, he wore an armor faceplate, much like the facial-mask of samurai armor. It had a small circle with short lines radiating out from it, much like a simple representation of the sun, etched into the center of it. His hair was a light brown, pulled back in a pony-tail which stretched down to his lower back, with a spiky fluff of hair in the front. Around his waist he wore a white belt which sported various pouches. Due to his face-mask, much detail of his face was lost.

The one in black wore a sleeveless yukata, which was not tied closed, exposing his bare chest. Black shorts were being held up by an onyx-colored belt, with a large pouch connected to it. His entire left arm was covered from the tip of his fingers to his shoulder by a polished gauntlet, with a simple representation of an open eye with a line running through the center of it etched onto the shoulder-plate. The boots of the man in black looked like they were made completely out of many belts strapped to his feet, the buckles jingling with each step he took. His skin was quite pale and his spiky, slicked back black hair and deep violet eyes stood out perfectly. His face had mildly feminine features to it, which gave him an attractive "pretty-boy" look.

The two strangers stopped in front of the two guards, who promptly spoke up, "You have reached the Eastern Gate of Konohagakure no Sato. State your names and your business for being here!" both guards shouted in unison.

The two strangers looked at each other for a second and then the one in black spoke up, "I am Honshitsu Akumu of Kuraigakure no Sato," he turned and motioned toward his partner, "And this is Seishin Taiyou ofHikarigakure no Sato. We are here for the Chuunin Exam_._"

The guards eased up, "So you're from the two newest Villages that the Hokage has been talking about?" one of them said as the other chuckled a bit, "So they're letting you take part of the Exam? Well that's interesting, I mean why would you need us for that since you've been hidden for so long?"

In response, the young man in black said, "Well that's only a side thing. We are also here for negations with your village."

The guard said, "If that's the case, then I'm sure you'll have some identification then."

Akumu grinned and said, "Sure," but as he reached into a pouch on his belt for his I.D. his grin faded, "Uhh, where are they?" he said nervously as he started to go through all of his scroll pouches.

The guards looked at each other for a second, yet when they looked back they saw that Akumu had taken his yukata off and was going through it, shaking it and all. Taiyou, all the while, had his head held in his hand and was feeling extreme embarrassment.

Having removed his pants, showing his shuriken and flame printed-boxers, he started to shake them feverishly. After a few good shakes, two small books fell to the ground, "Ah! Here they are," Akumu picked the books up and handed them to the guards while trying to get himself dressed.

The guards both looked over the and nodded in approval. One handed Akumu back the and the other walked up to the gate and talked into a slit in the door. As the doors opened, Akumu tried to put on the last few bits of this clothing. The guard at the door waved them past and welcomed them to Konoha. Taiyou walked in without saying a word and Akumu grinned widely as he was hoping on one leg through the gate. He turned back to the guards and yelled, "Thanks a lot-", but fell over flat on his face before he could finish.

As the gates close behind them, the two guards looked at each other and one said to the other, "Well, that was weird."

_**Scenebreak**_

Once the doors closed, Taiyou removed his mask just enough for him to slide in his hand to wipe away some collected sweat. "I think sometimes you get too much into your work," he said to Akumu as he fixed the mask back to his face.

"Yeah, I like what I do," Akumu grinned. Taiyou just rolled his eyes and continued walking farther into Konoha. Akumu pulled his pants up and walked after him. "Jeez, give me the silent treatment why don't you?"

As they got farther into the village, they heard a sharp smack of something against wood. They had just passed by what seemed to be a training ground, which being used by a weird looking boy with a bowl-cut hairdo and sporting a green spandex bodysuit. Akumu's eye started to immediately twitch, and if Taiyou was affected by this he did a good job not showing it.

Quietly Akumu whispered, "You'd never catch me alive in something like that."

"I would give you a mercy killing myself," Taiyou said as he started to walk faster, until a kunai hit the ground in front of him. He did not flinch; in fact, he barely accepted the kunai's existence. Akumu looked up to a nearby tree limb, and he saw a very feminine looking boy standing next to a girl with buns in her hair.

"WHO are you?" asked the feminine boy, who had white, pupil-less eyes.

Akumu grinned widely as he stated loudly, "I AM AKUMU," He reached out and put an arm around Taiyou's shoulders, much to Taiyou's irritation, "AND THIS IS MY PARTNER TAIYOU! WE ARE HERE TO PASS THE CHUUNIN EXAMS!"

The boy and girl were not sure how to respond to such a straightforward statement. The sudden yelling caused the spandex wearing boy to stop his assault on the wooden peg to look at them curiously. All of a sudden an older looking version of the boy in spandex appeared, with bright sparkling eyes, "AH YES! TWO NEW FLAMING YOUTHS FOR THIS YEARS EXAM," the man yelled.

The boy wearing the spandex raised his fist and yells at the similar looking man, "YES GAI-SENSEI! TWO NEW OPPONENTS FOR US TO FIGHT!"

The man now known as Gai says to the boy, "LEE!"

The boy now known as Lee says to Gai, "GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

The two continued this over and over again, making Akumu and Taiyou feel a bit uncomfortable. The feminine looking boy and the girl with the buns sighed at the repeating couple with a look of increasing embarrassment. Akumu turned to the girl with a questioning look, "Do they always do that?"

Her head drooped with a groan, and that's all the answer he needed. The feminine boy looked at her and said, "Back to the introductions."

Her head perked up and a smile crossed her face, "Hello, my name is Tenten," she then gestured to the feminine boy, "and this is Neji," then with a quick bow she said, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Akumu replied, "The pleasure's ours, Bun-Girl!" This made Tenten stare at him with a questioning look

Taiyou looked at Tenten, "Don't mind him, he's just like that."

Akumu's eyes got as wide as saucers and he almost yelled, but managed to control himself, "Damn! You hardly ever talk around people," he paused a bit in thought, "that is, unless you're around a girl you think is pretty!"

Taiyou glared at him and Tenten started to blush, and Neji's attitude never changed.

In a quick attempt to change the subject, Taiyou asked Tenten, "So what's the Exam like?"

Tenten just zoned out for a second and looked down at the ground. Neji spoke instead, "If I told you, then you'd have time to prepare, and that's not what this exam is all about. It's about testing yourself in the moment. But, I will tell you that it is very dangerous, people can die."

This brought Tenten back to focus, with a sad look.

Taiyou raised a brow and looks at Akumu who exchanges a glance with him. After a few seconds thought, Akumu looked back at Taiyou who then nodded in acknowledgment.

Taiyou spoke again, "Yes we understand what that's like," Tenten, who blushed as she and Neji looked at him with curious glances.

Akumu cut in, "Just a few comrades that went away,"

All of them looked back at Gai and Lee, who are still going at it, "Hey you two! Stop being so rude! Quit giving these newcomers bad impressions of our village's intelligence!" screams Tenten.

Gai and Lee suddenly appeared in front of the two newcomers, "Hello spirited youths! I AM GAI, The Beautiful Azure Beast of Konoha, and this is LEE my star pupil, The Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha."

Akumu raised his hands in greeting, and all of a sudden his pants fell to the ground. In only his boxers, with little ANBU masks on them, Akumu stood there feeling the breeze. He looked down and went, "Err . . . appears that I have a different way of preparing for battle, my 'No-Pants Technique'."

Gai's eyes widened, "AH YES! Such a grand and hip-modern idea! No pants to hinder your movements!", and with that he proceeded to drop his own pants showing his sakura-petal boxers, as Lee shouted "YOSH," and did the same to show his Haruno Sakura boxers, as Tenten and Neji held their heads in shame. Having all that he could stand, Taiyou grabbed Akumu by the back of the shirt and dragged him away before things got any farther. Akumu yelled back to the group as they leaf, "Goodbye Girly-Man! Goodbye Bun-Girl! Goodbye Man-dex and Bowlcut-boy!"

They all waved back as they get farther and farther away. Gai and Lee waving merrily, pants down to their ankles and as happy as can be.

_**Scenebreak**_

As they walked toward the Hokage Tower, Akumu spotted a ramen stand and started pulling Taiyou toward it. "Food. . ."

Taiyou nearly screamed, "We don't have time Akumu."

"BUT IT'S RAMEN!"

"NO TIME!"

Akumu pulled a spice-flavored bowl of ramen out of nowhere, shoving it in Taiyou's face, "But its raaaameeeeen," he said in a singsong voice.

Suddenly both Akumu and Taiyou could be seen in the Ichiraku Ramen stand, stuffing their faces.

Akumu slurped up a mouthful of ramen and he let forth a belch. He looked over at Taiyou who had pushed his mask up over his eyes to eat, "See Tai? This was a good idea! I could see you were getting hungry!"

"Lucky guess," Taiyou said between bites.

"Lucky NOTHING! Neither of us has eaten since we left Shadow Checkpoint. I tell you, it's crazy that there isn't one restaurant between there to here!"

Under his mask, Taiyou rolled his eyes, "Yes but only you would complain about food."

Suddenly they heard voices coming toward the ramen stand. One voice in particular, which made Akumu and Taiyou cringe, was very high pitched and girly sounding.

_Annoying-person-senses tingling, _they both thought.

Then the flaps to the stand opened and three people entered. The first one to enter made a maliciously wide smile cross Akumu's face, it being a pretty looking girl with an unusually big forehead. Another wore dark blue clothing, had black hair, and had an aura of arrogance about him, and the last was a silver haired man with his forehead protector over one eye. Akumu and Taiyou instantly recognized them as Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Hatake Kakashi.

The moment the trio sat down, the chatter between Akumu and Taiyou instantly stopped, as they looked over to them with slightly cold but seemingly bored eyes. This was either unnoticed or ignored in that the trio did not even acknowledge Akumu and Taiyou's existence. Taiyou motioned for them to hurry and go as he put down money for their meal. The owner looked at them and said aloud, "They ate almost as much as my best customer!" he sighed as he continued, "I do miss that boy."

The trio looked at him curiously and mumbled, "Well, that was weird," before they made their orders.

_**Scenebreak**_

The village had gotten busier as it got later and later into the morning. Akumu thought he knew where he was going, but they were heading around all over the place, and Taiyou was more and more sure they were lost, so he grabbed Akumu by the shirt and yelled, "Ok. Just ASK FOR DIRECTIONS!"

Akumu complied with a grumble that sounded like, "Damn grumpy bastard!" Akumu decided to walk into the closest shop, a flower shop, and proceed to ask the nearest, most random person for directions. That just happened to be a girl behind counter. The girl had platinum blonde hair and had a frilly apron on much to Akumu's, and even Taiyou's, amusement.

Akumu rested his elbow on the counter, trying to look suave, and he said, "Hey frilly apron girl, where can I find the Hokage Tower?"

The girl instantly got a pissed off look on her face, and Akumu was instantly flying out the door. Taiyou walked up with exasperation in his eyes and said in a disarming voice, "I apologize, Miss, but may you please answer the question?"

She then smiled and said, "Sure! Just head north and there you go."

Taiyou nodded to the girl and said, "Thank you Miss-. . . ?"

The flower girl's face started to turn a red that would make many of the flowers in her shop feel bad about themselves. With a giggly tone she spoke up, "Yamanaka Ino. And you are, good Sir?"

"I am Seishin Taiyou. And the guy you sent flying out the shop was my partner, Honshitsu Akumu."

Ino didn't respond. It looked as if she was lost in deep thought, but he wasn't so sure. When she did start to move again, she was looking at his face mask curiously, "What does that symbol on your face mask mean?"

Taiyou's eyes widen as he gently touches his mask, "This is my village symbol. I am from Hikarigakure no Sato."

Ino blinked and suddenly Taiyou was gone, "Hikarigakure no Sato? Huh?"

_**Scenebreak**_

As they were making their way to the tower, Taiyou was laughing loudly, "Shut up okay," Akumu grumbled.

"Sorry, but it's funny you had us going in the completely wrong direction and got yourself thrown out by a girl," Taiyou said laughing.

"HEY . . . she was a very masculine female!"

"HA, HA! Please, she looked so thin. Some of those flowers in her shop I'm sure were thicker than her."

"Well you have no right to laugh," he mocked the face Ino gave him when she was lost in thought, "Mr. Dreamboat!"

Taiyou could feel his cheeks turning red under his mask, "I have no idea what you are talking about, so let's drop the subject"

"SURE! NOW you want to drop the subject."

A harsh voice calls out to them, "HALT!" Unknown to them, they had been nearing the tower and had just been stopped by two ANBU guards. "What is your business here?"

Taiyou instantly hid behind Akumu and popped his head out from behind him. Akumu gave a big grin and said, "HEY! We are here to see the Hokage for the Chuunin Exam."

The two ANBU nodded, and let them in.

Taiyou raised an eyebrow as they got inside and out of sight, "The security sure is lax, isn't it?"

Akumu grunts, "Peaceful bastards aren't they?"

As they made it to the Hokage office, they stopped in front of the secretary's desk, "We're here to see the Hokage about the Chuunin exams. We're from the new villages."

The secretary was about to ask Akumu and Taiyou to wait a moment, when a loud booming voice from another room told her to let them pass. With a nod, she opened the door and let them enter.

As they entered, Akumu has a big grin on his face as he sees a HUGE breasted woman, with blonde hair behind the desk. As he approached he bowed to her and said, "Good morning, Hokage-sama! I didn't expect such a beautiful young woman would be behind the desk today." Taiyou lets out a small moan and shakes his head.

The Hokage's assistant, who has brown shoulder-length hair, looks at the boy surprised and the Hokage smiles before saying, "Well, what a very pleasant young man you are." She then sat down, "I am the Hokage. But you two can just call me Tsunade. It sounds less formal. Please, have a seat." As they sat down, she looked at them and said, "Let me be the first to officially welcome you to Konoha. I noticed it's only the two of you, which is quite unfortunate. Now, usually you are supposed to have three people to a team, so I am probably going have to assign you an extra person."

Taiyou lets out a moan and Akumu gets a disgruntled look on his face.

"Do you really think that is necessary?" Akumu blurted out.

"Of course it is! The rules specifically state that each team must have three people."

"But ma'am, we do just fine on our own," Taiyou argued.

Tsunade looked at him, "Do you?" she picked up two files from her desk and looked over them, "From what it says here you barely qualify to take the exam." Taiyou's eyes widen slightly and he looked down.

Akumu looked at her desperately, "But we really don't want someone we probably won't get along with," he turns and points at Taiyou, "and HE'S socially inept!"

Taiyou glared at him slightly.

Tsunade sighed, "I'm sorry. If you want, I can give you a list, and you can go meet a few to choose from."

Taiyou groaned at the prospect of meeting more people.

Akumu whined, "But! But! Can't YOU come help us then? I think I'd rather have you around than just some other random, possibly annoying person."

Taiyou snickered, "Does Akumu have a crush on the pretty Hokage? Going after beauty AND power, eh?"

Akumu's face went red and he yelled, "NO I DO NOT, YOU BASTARD!" The assistant giggled, and Tsunade chuckled at them.

Taiyou grins, "Uh huh," he makes an over dramatic version of Akumu's voice, "Tsunade-sama, please, over power me!"

Akumu's eyes narrow and he tackles Taiyou, and they get into a scuffle where all you see is a dust cloud.

Tsunade's assistant leaned over to her and whispered, "Are they really ninjas? I mean look at them!" They both looked over to the two on the ground; Taiyou was stuck in a headlock being yelled at him to say uncle. Taiyou cringed, and he gave in, "Uncle, Uncle!"

They stopped and looked at the Hokage. Taiyou instantly looked down as he turned red under his mask, and Akumu just grinned.

"Fine! We fought over it, and it's agreed!" Akumu beamed, "We'll pick a suitable team, and we will win. I promise you that, and I never break a promise!"

At that, both of them jumped a little and a faint wave of nostalgia washed over them. They shook it off, and Tsunade stood, "Well, I wish you good luck in your search!"

They all bow to each other, and Akumu approached Tsunade, where she then handed him the list of available ninja. He looked into her eyes, and his pale skin showed some blush. Akumu quickly bowed again, and he and Taiyou make their way outside.

Tsunade turned to her assistant, "Well, that was weird."

_**Scenebreak**_

The Southern part of the village was bustling with life as villagers were running about the town, doing what villagers do. Akumu was walking around with a scowl on his face as he looked at everyone with disgust, "Look at them all . . . maggots . . . they should all burn in the depths of the void."

"As much as I agree, we still need their help in order to finish the mission," Taiyou responded with a tone of disgust.

"Hey! Remember, don't talk about the mission," Akumu opened the file, and searched through the names again, "and we don't really need any of these people. We could do it just fine without them," his scowl was replaced by a slight smile, "But we'll do it only because Tsunade-sama told us to."

Taiyou rolled his eyes and figured it'd be best to let it drop for a while, "So who is the first on the list?"

"That would be," Akumu ran a finger up to the top of the list, "Team Kakashi."

They both stopped in the middle of the street and look at each other, simultaneously saying, "Pass!"

"What's next then?" Taiyou asked.

Akumu looks up the next name in line, ". . . Ugh, this is going to be a long day."

_**Scenebreak**_

So the day went forth, and they encountered many kinds of ninjas. The first group they met was a team of girls. They seemed innocent enough, until Akumu mentioned how they have such nice figures. All hell broke loose soon after, and the girls chased Akumu and Taiyou all through the streets, destroying everything and leaving dust clouds behind them as they ran.

The second group was full of nerdy looking kids, and Akumu and Taiyou ran away at the mere SIGHT of them with, dust clouds trailing behind them.

Midday after lunch, which Akumu nearly forced Taiyou to get, they got a normal group to meet, but one thing lead to another and they ended up nearly blowing up Akumu and Taiyou. They were seen leaving the area charred, black, and sooty.

"I don't think this is working out," Akumu said while dusting off the last of the black soot from his already black outfit.

"Maybe we should have just let your sister come along with us," Taiyou quickly pondered what he had just said, "After all, I'm sure she would have been more than a match for any of these fools."

"I thought you didn't like Ikumi?" a big grin stretched over Akumu's face.

"I don't! It's just that things would be going a lot smoother if she had come with us."

"It's your own fault!" Akumu pointed at Taiyou, his grin having grown much bigger, "You didn't want her to come since you know how much she L-O-V-E-S you."

Taiyou growled, "How would you feel if you had someone's younger sister running after you grabbing onto your arm all the time?"

Akumu just starts laughing hysterically as he patted him on the back, in which Taiyou falls down from. Akumu just looked down and stared at him, ". . . Uhh."

Taiyou gets up and glared at him, "Ok, who's next?" he asks.

Akumu looked at the next name on the list, "Sarutobi's team," Akumu looked over at Taiyou, "Well, it says by now they should be at a barbecue place," Tears stream down Akumu's face as he holds a fist tightly in triumph, "Finally, after so long I get to have barbecue again. YOSH! TO THE BARBECUE STAND!" and they start to march.

Taiyou sighed, as he saw the barbecue stand in the opposite direction, and grabs Akumu, dragging him toward in right direction, "Seriously Akumu, you REALLY need to pay attention to what is around you instead of what is in your gut."

Akumu looked up at him, grinning sheepishly, "Sorry, I'm just hungry."

"When are you NOT hungry?"

"NEVER!"

_**Scenebreak**_

The barbecue place was nice looking place. It was respectably cozy and had a warm atmosphere. The second they walked in, though, Akumu straightened suddenly and mumbled, "Fan . . . girl . . . senses . . . tingling!"

Then they heard someone's voice, "Hey Taiyou-san! Taiyou-san, and uh, other guy! Over here!"

They look over and see the "Frilly-apron-girl-of-death", which Akumu now often refers to her as. As they walked over to say hello, they saw a pretty big ninja with a cigarette in his mouth.

The man looked at them, and stood respectfully, "So, you must be the from the two new villages coming for the Chuunin exams. Come have a seat since Ino already invited you." He glares lightly at her then sits down and sighs.

There was a fat boy there eating everything in sight who, when he finally notices eyes upon him, looked up at Akumu and Taiyou. He just looked at them as he is eating and says, "Hwewwo . . . nish two mwetsh yoush!"

Ino looks at him scandalized, "CHOUJI! DON'T TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!" she turns to her sensei, "And YOU! Asuma-sensei should be more welcoming," she then yells at another guy who seemed to be sleeping in the corner, "and YOU, Shikamaru, should say hello to our guests instead of SLEEPING!"

Akumu sized up the one called "Shikamaru", and he got the feeling that he and this guy will have a lot in common. Snapping himself out of his own thoughts, he began to speak, "Well since everyone's name is known, I shall introduce myself. Ahem. Greetings! My name is Honshitsu Akumu. It's a pleasure to meet you. Do you mind if we sit?"

Taiyou can tell Akumu is HUNGRY and he just wants to sit and eat as fast as possible.

Asuma's eye twitched as he grinned a little, "Very well. Since you are new here, we will even buy your food."

Taiyou and Akumu both smiled and sat. Akumu made sure to take the only available seat other than the one next to Ino. Taiyou noticed this and glared at him as he sat next to her, begrudgingly.

Ino smiled at Taiyou, but she then turned to Chouji, "Really Chouji, to eat so much is terrible. You would look much better if you didn't have so much weight."

Chouji just looked at her, being scandalized.

Akumu just looked at him as a waitress came by and set out more food and tea, "I don't see what you mean. He's not fat, just big boned and largely proportioned."

Streams of tears were falling down his cheeks as he smiled around his food, "Finally, someone who understands me!"

Looking at all the delicious food in front of them, Akumu and Taiyou started grilling massive amounts of food and stuffing as much as they could into their mouths. To Akumu's dismay, there wasn't even one restaurant between the last checkpoint they were at and Konoha, so he figured he might as well get in as much as he can. Ino just looked at them as they started putting as much food away as Chouji. Asuma himself felt his stomach drop as he watched them eat._ Goodbye paycheck,_ he thought.

Just before Akumu took a bite out of a massive portion of meat, Taiyou kicked Akumu's leg under the table. He put the meat down with a frown and turned his attention to Asuma, "Asuma-sama," he said, "as you can see, our team is one person short." He steepled his hands in front of his face, and his deep violet eyes peer intensely at Asuma "We were hoping you would let us join your team so we may take part in the exam."

Asuma ran a hand through his beard as he thought over Akumu's request. He both Akumu and Taiyou over a few seconds and asked, "What is your record like?"

Akumu's face didn't change as he said, "The bare minimum required."

Asuma just looked at him, "I'm sorry but I'm afraid that just won't do."

Both Akumu and Taiyou sighed. Ino looked over at Taiyou, and all she saw were sad puppy-eyes looking deeply at her. She turned to Asuma and pleaded to let the duo join their group for the exam. Asuma looked at Chouji, who is still so overwhelmed that someone finally understood him. Though, he did actually stop eating long enough to agree with Ino. Asuma sighed again, "Fine, I'll talk to the Hokage about this." Everyone sitting at the table cheered, and Akumu, Taiyou, and Chouji resumed eating.

After everyone had their fill, Chouji went to go meet someone named Shikamaru somewhere, and Asuma told Ino to take Akumu and Taiyou and find them a place for them to stay while he talked with the Hokage. As they all scattered, Asuma walked off sighing, with a foot long receipt in his hand.

_**Scenebreak**_

"I hope Asuma-sensei can convince the Hokage to let you work with us!" Ino said to Taiyou as they followed her to wherever it is she was taking them.

Akumu frowned, for he hated being around annoying girls. He ignored her and looked around, noticing it was now quite a bit past noon. The path they were walking down had thick trees on either side. _Looks like we made it back into another forest_, thought Akumu as he tried to figure it out why there are so many trees in Konoha. He preferred the Dark-Cherry Trees of his homeland better.

A faint smell came to Akumu, breaking his train of thought, "Tai, do you smell that? Smells like dog."

Ino looked at Akumu in question when Taiyou replied, "It does smell like dog."

Akumu turned to look up in the trees, "Come on out, we know you're up there!" he yelled to the forest.

No sooner had he said anything, a person wearing something similar to an Eskimo-type jacket, jumped out of a tree and landed on the path. Right behind him was a large white dog, and immediately Akumu was seen next to it petting it, "Aw, look! A doggy."

The dog just looks at him with a quizzical expression.

"Hey you!" the man screamed at Akumu, "How DARE you just insult Akamaru and just pet him as if he is your friend? Jackass!"

Akumu just looked at the yelling person, and gave him a simple, "Huh?"

All of a sudden three more figures appeared. One was a pale girl who has similar eyes to "Girly-man". Akumu thought this one was pretty, at least. Another was a weird and silent guy with sunglasses and a trench coat, and the last was an older, but VERY beautiful, to Taiyou anyway, kunoichi with red eyes who was most likely the leader of the group.

"Kiba-kun. Please leave them alone. They smelled dog because Akamaru IS a dog," spoke the pale girl, in a timid yet confident tone.

Taiyou and Akumu smelled the air again, and surprisingly, Taiyou spoke, "No. The dog smells like shampoo, strawberry I think?"

Akumu pointed at the guy, who was labeled by the pale girl as Kiba, and yelled slightly in a mocking tone, "Yeah! YOU'RE the one that smells bad, dog-breath!"

"Now you insult me!?" Kiba yelled harshly at Akumu.

Tension between them started to grow, each one scowling at the other. The red-eyed kunoichi stepped in front of Kiba, placed a hand on his shoulder, and shook her head. They both eased up, and Taiyou breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're lucky, Pretty-Boy!" Kiba barked over the Kunoichi's shoulder.

Taiyou noticed that when Kiba said what he had to Akumu, the pale girl looked away from Akumu with a slight blush. He had been watching her, and she had been watching him quite intensely since she came from the trees.

The red-eyed kunoichi turned from Kiba to Akumu with a slight grin, "You new-comers stir up trouble fast."

Akumu's pale skin started to turn bright red, and he rubbed the back of his head, "Heh, heh, do we really stand out that much?" He looked down at his clothes and over his shoulder at Taiyou, who's only reply was a shrug.

The pale girl spoke up, "Kurenai-sensei, do you know who these people are?"

"No, I don't," the kunoichi labeled Kurenai closed her eyes, "The only thing I know is where they come from," She looked up at Akumu and then glanced at Taiyou, "and even then, that's very little." She got confused looks from Kiba, the pale girl, and even Ino who had been standing silently next to Taiyou the entire time. "They each hail from the two newest Hidden Villages. From what all the Jounin have been informed by the Hokage, two previously unheard of villages have surfaced and wish to make open trade with some of the other Hidden Villages. Anymore information past that is, at best, only rumors." She walked up to Akumu and looked him over, "From your clothes, and the symbol on your shoulder guard, you must from Kuraigakure no Sato," and then Taiyou, "And you must be from Hikarigakure no Sato."

Akumu let out a cry of excitement and clapped his hand with gusto, "Looks like Konoha was more prepared than we thought they would be. How wonderful!"

"Unfortunately, your villages leave a lot to the imagination." Kurenai chuckled a bit to her own statement.

"Don't worry. When it comes time for negations," Akumu motioned towards Taiyou, "we will be glad to clear up any questions or doubts you may have."

"At least your villages have very polite ninjas," Kurenai closed her red eyes and she let a large smile cross her face.

Any tension there might have been between anyone was now gone. Akumu quickly scanned everyone in Kurenai's group, "You seem to know so much about us, and yet we know so little about you and your group."

"If you haven't noticed, I am Kurenai. Yuhi Kurenai. And these Genin under my leadership are Aburame Shino," she motioned toward the guy with the shades and coat, "Inzuka Kiba and is dog Akumaru whom you've already met," she gestured toward Kiba and Akumaru, "and Hyuga Hinata."

Before she could motion toward Hinata, Akumu had already rushed toward her, grabbed her hands, and was staring deeply into her eyes causing Hinata to blush, "It is quite the pleasure to meet you Hyuga-san!"

Taiyou shook his head and Ino looked shocked and mumbled, "If only he was polite more often," to which Taiyou chuckled at. Shino just looked, well, like Shino, and Kurenai smiled in amusement.

Kiba didn't think it was so funny, and voiced as such as he ran up to them, "HEY! GET OFF HER!"

Unfortunately he screamed right into Hinata's ear, to which she screamed, and then all of a sudden Akumu jerked his hand away. He looked down at his hand, seeing a red dot in the middle of his palm.

Hinata gasped, and grabbed his hand to look at it, "Oh! I'm sorry! I-I d-d-didn't mean-"

Akumu waved his other hand quickly and with a smile on his face, "No worries Hyuga-san!"

Taiyou chuckled merrily behind his mask, "Ah. This reminds me of home."

Akumu just grinned at him.

Ino just looked lost for a second, and then turned to Taiyou and asked cheerfully, "Taiyou-san, we should get moving and get you to your place to stay."

Taiyou nodded and called to Akumu, "Hey Pretty-Boy! Let's get a move on!"

Akumu just glared at him, "Ok, Dreamboat! We can go."

Kurenai just looked at them with a weird expression as they started walking off, and turned to her team, "Well, I guess we should start training as well."

From a distance, Kurenai and her team could hear Akumu's voice yelling back at them, "Maybe we could train together some time, Hyuga-san!"

This caused Hinata to blush again.

As Kurenai's team was about to walk away, Shino spoke, "Those two shinobi . . . "

Kiba smirked at him and said arrogantly, "Yea, they are a couple of weaklings aren't they?"

Hinata looked at him, "Kiba-kun! That is not-"

"No." Shino replied before they could go farther, "What I was going to say was that my Kikai couldn't read them properly. Their chakra is extremely low, lower than what a ten-year-old should have."

Kiba rolled his eyes, "So? Doesn't that prove what I said?"

Shino shakes his head, "No, you don't understand. Every human has a certain amount of chakra that they should have when they get older. They, on the other hand, have less than what a ten-year-old should have, which is impossible, as they are obviously older."

Kurenai blinked at Shino for a second before sighing, and lead them to the training grounds.

_**Scenebreak**_

Soon after that confrontation, Ino had led them to a place for them to stay. It was somewhat small, but it would suit their needs. After which, she had to go back to work at the flower shop, so she set off after giving Akumu a punch in the face for saying "Bye, frilly-apron-girl-of-death."

Taiyou sat down at the table with his mask off, sipping a cup of hot tea as Akumu sat in front of him with the same. "Interesting bunch of people they are," Taiyou said with a tone of some interest.

Akumu nodded, "Yes, this will be very interesting," he paused to sip some tea, "When is the attack going to start?"

Taiyou's eyes narrowed, "Anytime during the Chuunin exam, but more than likely it will happen during the fourth day of it. Although, it can range to even a month after."

"That doesn't tell us much."

"I am aware."

"I wonder what it is we are paying Intel for exactly?" Akumu asked more to himself than to Taiyou.

They remained silent for a few moments. Then Akumu spoke, "It would be a good idea to prepare. So 'Mastermind', do you have a plan on how we are going do this?" he asked Taiyou with sarcasm.

Taiyou looked toward him, "I always have a plan my friend."

_**Scenebreak**_

Over the course of the next week, Akumu and Taiyou pretty much had done nothing but run around and cause a little mayhem as they encountered all kinds of people. Until one day . . .

"OOF," Akumu just ran into a guy wearing a black body suit and had something wrapped on his back.

The guy looked down at him, "HEY! Watch where you're going, you ass!"

Akumu went into a laughing fit as he pointed at the guys face. "WHAT THE HELL IS WITH ALL THE MAKE UP?!"

Suddenly, a blonde woman with four pigtails walked up, "You know, it's not nice to laugh when you look prettier than the average girl."

At this the make-upped man smirked.

All of a sudden, a ball of sand impacted with his face. They all turned as Taiyou walked up to them. He brushed the remaining sand off his hands with his pants, "You shouldn't be smirking when you have ten times more make-up than a street-side whore." Taiyou said, trying to act cool.

Akumu got up and smirked at the man, "I'm sure you feel secure knowing that your companion knows that you're so weak that you'd need defending."

The make-upped man glared heatedly at him as Taiyou made a comment, "Yes, the strong SHOULD always defend the weak."

The girl just raised an eyebrow and the make-upped man has steam coming out of his ears.

Taiyou appeared before the woman and bowed to her, "Hello! Might I ask what a beautiful, and obviously skilled kunoichi, is doing around such a weakling?"

Akumu smirked as he mock-kicked the guy in the shin, "Yeah! Good question."

The woman blushed slightly, but that didn't last long as she then got a pissed off look on her face, "Well, for one, he is my brother. And two, don't try to woo ME!" She reached back for a black and slim rectangular object on her back, but then stops as Taiyou seemed to have a bright smile on what she could see of his face. "What are you smiling about?" she asked.

When he didn't move or respond, she pushed him on the shoulder and he fell down to reveal that it was nothing but a cardboard cut-out of himself. When she, and the make-upped man, looked at where Akumu had been, the wind had already blown down a cardboard cut-out of him as well. The woman and man looked at each other with questioning, and pissed, expressions.

_**Scenebreak**_

The next morning about eighty ninjas were starting to pile into the hallways in the academy, ready to take the first part of the Chuunin exams. Akumu and Taiyou had gotten there early to make sure nothing went wrong. Everyone they had met since their coming to Konoha was there. Taiyou was caught up by Ino who wouldn't let him get away. Last he had seen, Akumu had already found Hinata, trying to charm her. All it had done was made her blush, though Hinata seemed to have liked the attention.

After a long while, one of the instructors finally called to the mass of people saying the tests were about ready to start. Taiyou kept a leveled head, but Akumu's blood was boiling with excitement.

Akumu jumped up and screamed loud enough for everyone to hear, "ALL RIGHT! ITS TIME!" causing Taiyou to act like he didn't know him. Though, this was near to pointless, since unknown to him at the time, Akumu and Taiyou were the topics carried by every whispered gossip since their stay in Konoha.

Everyone piled into the exam room, ready for what was to come. As everyone took their seats apart from their respective teams, Taiyou looked to his left and noticed the girl with the buns in her hair, Tenten. "Oh, hello, Tenten-san," he said to her with a smile, "Good luck on the exam."

She turned to him and smiled as she replied, "And you as well, Taiyou-kun. "

Kiba snickered behind them, "Taiyou-KUN huh?"

Tenten's eyes widened and looked back at him, "Shut up Kiba!"

Taiyou just rolled his eyes and looked over to Akumu, as Akumu turned to him and nodded to tell Taiyou he was ready. Though Taiyou knew better, Akumu, while he probably knew the answers, can't take tests. He had the classic case of test anxiety. And not just any test, but written tests. His will, strength, and abilities could be tested without even the slightest waver in Akumu's attitude, but written tests are, in his opinion, his only weakness! Well, besides speed, pretty girls, and candy. But they agreed that to be both their weaknesses. Though this was all hardly common knowledge, so Taiyou was ok with having a weakness or two.

All of a sudden a man with scars all on his face stepped in front of the examinees, "All right rookies! It's time for your first part of this exam.", While he spoke, a few other instructors went around and passed out papers to everyone. "The method this exam is based on is something I perfected during the last exam. So if anyone has a problem with how I do things, feel free to leave!" everyone started getting on edge, and that's just the way he wanted it, "For those of you who were here last time, you know the drill. For the fresh ones, this is how it will pan out: There are nine questions, and after forty-five minutes are over I will ask the tenth and final question. Around you will be some of the sharpest eyes in Konoha, watching your every move. They will make sure you won't cheat," He paused a moment and looked ever all the students, "Now let's get started!"

The tests were administered and then the first part of the Chuunin exam went underway. Akumu was dumbstruck as he was sweating in anxiety.

_Crap! What the hell am I going to do?_ His eyes darted around as he tried to figure out how he is going to get the answers, but as he looked up he dismissed an idea. He looked back down at his paper, only to see the shadow of a hand writing down answers for him. _Thanks, Kage! I owe you one._ He could see that the shadow moved about the room, stealthily taking answers from other students.

Taiyou had it easy! He basically knew all the answers and he checked them by looking at Tenten's paper without her noticing, and looked up into her mirror as well as she was using it.

Later in the exam, when forty minutes was almost done, Taiyou pushed is paper slightly toward Tenten with a question mark by the only question he doesn't have, and an arrow pointing to answer she doesn't have. She immediately knew what he wanted and copied down his answer and offered her paper to him as well.

Akumu's shadow had nearly finished the test for him. At one point, it went all the way over to Taiyou, where he was able to get the answer to the last question. Though no one noticed it besides Taiyou, or was too busy with the test to pay it any attention, it was still moving very carefully around the room. It had even waved at Taiyou as it was taking his answers.

As the shadow had filled in the last of Akumu's questions, the scarred-instructor yelled, "Time's Up!" Everyone sat at attention as they waited for the final question.

The man smirked, "Are you rookies ready?" \

Some random leaf-nin raised his hand "Ibiki-sensei . . . is the last question hard?"

Ibiki smiled maliciously, "Why yes . . . and if you fail it, you can never try this test again." Taiyou raises an eyebrow and Akumu snorted loudly as many students left, "Please, as if you scare anybody. The last question can't be that hard, so give it already!"

Ibiki raised an eyebrow and smirked again, "Very well! ROOKIES," Everyone sat up at attention and listened intently. "You all," there was a long pause, "pass."

Everyone fell over for no apparent reason at that. Ibiki continued, "And it seems there are quite a lot more people left over than the previous years! Congratulations."

Just then the ceiling broke in and there stood a woman with a black flag behind her. She had raven hair and a very curvaceous figure, to the delight of both Akumu AND Taiyou.

The raven haired woman grinned at them all very viciously, "Congratulations on passing the first test, but now I, Mitirashi Anko, will be your next examiner! Please, feel free to beg for you lives! HAHAHAHAHA."

Ibiki just bowed his head into his hand, _Does she REALLY have to be like that?_ he thought.

"Hey, what's going on here?! There are more examinees here than ever, you have to be harder old man." Anko crossed her arms as Ibiki glares at her.

Anko smirked at them all, "Ah, very well. I'll be sure to dispose of two-thirds of you before this next test is over with."

All of a sudden the room just went five below freezing.

Inwardly, Akumu smirked, _Really now, don't get me so worked up. This next test provides more freedom. Oh, this will be fun, that's for sure._

Taiyou, as if sensing Akumu's thoughts, looked over to him and raised an eyebrow. Akumu just nodded at him in return with a smile.

Anko yawned and threw papers at someone by the door, "Make sure everyone gets one, and all of you make sure these are signed. I don't want any problems if you people decide to die during the next test."

As Akumu and Taiyou walked out with their papers, they met up with Chouji and Ino.

"Ah, good job guys! We are now one step closer to being Chuunin." Taiyou smiles an eye smile.

Akumu just laughed, "HA! They might as well just give us the title!"

Ino scowled a bit, "Don't go getting bigheaded. I've been through this test once already, and I have to say that it is the toughest thing I've ever done in my life."

"Well I'm not worried one bit!" Akumu stated, as he did this Taiyou shot him a glance. Akumu mumbled a bit and restated, "I mean, with the four of us we should have this down nicely."

Chouji smiled around his chips, "Well, how about we go for barbeque to celebrate?"

Before Akumu can speak, Taiyou intercedes, "I apologize, but we must be ready for the next test and Akumu and I have to speak of a few things privately concerning negotiations that are going to happen after the next test, seeing as how we won't have time to do so during the test."

This left Akumu's jaw hanging wide open.

Ino and Chouji pondered it a while and then agreed to leave them be for now, as they walked away Ino could be heard asking Chouji "What was Akumu's problem?"

After they had left to their own devices, Akumu turned to Taiyou with burning rage in his eyes. "Ok, three things. One: Why did you deny me barbeque? Two: Since when do YOU talk that much around girls, let alone anyone? And Three: Uhh . . . Barbeque!"

Taiyou just rolled his eyes and walked off to head to their room. With a sad look, Akumu ran after him.

_**Scenebreak**_

The next day, all four of them were standing outside the "Forest of Death."

Akumu whistled, "Now THAT'S a forest."

Anko yelled at them, "All right rookies, in this test you have five days to reach the tower. During those five days you have to liberate two scrolls from other teams before you can advance! You start off with one scroll so you obviously need three, and you have to have one scroll of each kind. You have Fire, Wind, and Ice scrolls that you have to have at the end. Also . . . do NOT open the scrolls before the end of this examination!"

Ino blinked and put a hand on her hip, "Well shit, the test is a bit different."

Akumu noticed something about her and decided to point it out, "Hey Ino, when you put your hand on your hip why did you move your butt so close to Taiyou?"

Ino instantly turned red then swung around and belted him across the ground. Taiyou just shook his head, and Chouji just laughed around his chips as Ino huffed.

Not too long after, they could be seen outside of a gate with the number "twenty'' on it.

Akumu had been chosen to hold onto the scroll, and it was safely tucked away in his belt pouch. "Well Tai, the second test . . . "

Taiyou looked up into the trees; the sun gleaming off of his face mask, "Indeed."

Ino smiled and joined in, "Let's do our best guys!"

Chouji just smiled around his chips again (A/N: Man . . . he is REALLY happy with those chips), and as the gates flung open, all four of them ran into the forest.

A/N:

**-D-** Here ya go! Chapter One: Refurbished and Better-Than-Ever. We intend to go back over and revise Chapters Two and Three, making sure we iron out some of the missed grammatical errors and any inconsistencies from one chapter to another before we continue writing the long overdue Forth Chapter.

Also, during my forth re-read, I noticed that we had misspelled "Akubu's" name. It was supposed to be "Akumu", which is the real word for "Nightmare" in Japanese, and for some reason "Akubu" just stuck out in our head instead, and we continued to make that mistake for three and a half chapters. I finally got around to fixing that.

One final thing, If any of you feel that our English to Japanese translations are wrong in any way (which I'm very sure they probably are) please let us know how to better say it, and we'll be sure to fix it.

Translations:

Akumu Honshitsu: _Nightmare Essence ("_Honshitsu"_ could be either "True-Nature" or "Essence", but since both are basically the same, we chose "Essence")_

Taiyou Seishin: _Sun Spirit_

Kuraigakure no Sato (later shortened to Kurai Village): _Village Hidden in Darkness_

Hikarigakure no Sato (later shortened to Hikari Village): _Village Hidden in Light_


	3. CHAPTER 2: The Chuunin Exams Continue

Disclaimer: Ok.....we have no money in our bank accounts....so obviously......WE DON'T HAVE NARUTO.

_Translations, for those who need it or like it, are at the end of the chapter_.

CHAPTER 2: THE CHUUNIN EXAMS CONTINUE

The Forest of Death.

_Heh, this place doesn't scare ME at all, _thought Akumu as he was ran alongside his "team", as the second exam began. His eyes narrowed slightly as if he was deep in thought, and then, a second later he blurted, "I'm bored with running already!"

Ino grimaced and said, as she was looking around, "Alright guys, we have to be quiet if we want to sneak up on anybody. It would be a good idea to get the jump on our opponents first. Also, don't open the scroll for any reason. Got that?"

Akumu snorted as he replied, "Oh, the great leader now are we?"

As Ino was about to glare at him, Akumu abruptly stopped. This caused Taiyou to stop and glare at him, "Akum-"

"NO TAIYOU! We are setting ground rules," Akumu said this as he leaned against a tree, "After all, we've never worked together," Ino just rolled her eyes. "So, first we need to pick who's in charge, then if we have to split up who goes with whom, and who would do what in our little team."

Ino and Chouji looked at each other and mumbled, "Great, someone who wants to be boss."

Akumu raised a finger to indicate the first rule. "First, Taiyou is in charge," their eyes widened at him in intrigue, "Second, to add to that, if we aren't in the heat of battle and just planning ahead, don't listen to me."

They blinked at him, and Taiyou just sighed. But before any more could be said, a kunai hit the ground near their feet. A laugh from above them drew their attention to the trees, a voice unfamiliar to any of them called out, "You know, you should be stealthier, if you care for your health that is."

They searched the trees and Taiyou spotted a trio of grass ninja standing on a tree branch. The leader spoke up while the other two just laughed at what he had to say, "First of all," he pointed at Taiyou, "He has metal on his heels, so his footsteps make him relatively easy to find," Taiyou raised a cocky eyebrow as the grass ninja continued, "Secondly," he looked at Ino, "Your shrilly voice carries," Ino got red in the face and she balled her fists up, "and last of all," he threw a rock at Akumu, who appeared to be lost in his own little world, "He-WHA?!"

His statement was cut short as his rock hit Akumu. As he fell over, Akumu appeared to be extremely flat and light, which showed as he slowly fell to the ground, as if he was made of paper. The grass ninjas tried to react, but something solid hit them square in the back, and they were soon surrounded by a white smoke. The grass ninjas coughed as they breathed in the smoke, but soon afterwards they began to waver, and one by one they fell off the branch and hit the ground below. Everyone was silent, until the grass ninjas sores started to sound off like sirens.

Akumu grinned stupidly from atop a branch behind where the grass ninjas once stood, holding in his hand a small white cloth bag, "Well now, that was fun!"

Ino and Chouji just looked at him, their mouths agape. Taiyou walked nonchalantly to the grass ninjas and picked their scroll out of their leaders' pocket, "Ah. We now have one of the scrolls we needed," Taiyou held up the scroll for them to see. The fire symbol stood out nicely on the bright red wrapping.

Ino nodded and looked to Akumu, "What scroll did we start with?"

Akumu took the scroll out of a pouch on his belt. As he did, some silver wire dangled out slightly, and he quickly shoved it back in. The scroll's dark green wrapping made looking at the symbol hard, "It is 'Wind', and all we need is 'Ice'. Not a bad start at all if you ask me. One scroll in only 15 minutes," He looked over to the pile of sleeping grass ninjas, "It's so nice when people hand deliver to you exactly what you want."

Taiyou handed the Fire scroll to Ino, "Here you hold on to it. It's probably best to give everyone in our group a scroll. That way if we get defeated, as soon as our enemies find the first scroll, hopefully they'll stop searching, and we won't have to start from square-one."

Ino smiled and nodded, "Ok Taiyou-san. So you're our leader now, right?"

Chouji fell over at that, _Damn Ino and her girly fan-girlishness._

Taiyou smiled an eye smile, seeing as how he wore a mask. "Please, no need for the 'san', Ino-san. That goes for you too, Chouji-san."

Chouji suddenly stood up and nodded, "Then forget the 'san' with us then as well."

Ino blushed slightly, "Or you can use 'chan' if you want."

Akumu just grinned at Taiyou, "Tai's got a girlfriend! Tai's got a girlfriend! My little sister is gonna be sooo livid!" He walked off laughing as Taiyou looked at him with a twitch in his eye, as Ino continued to blush and looked down, yet slightly glaring in Akumu's direction, as they started to walk after him.

_****-Scenebreak-***__*****_

"Don't you think it would be a good idea to go much faster than we are now? I've taken this exam before and it took our group almost the entire five days to complete it," Ino yelled at her black and white suited partners. Akumu and Taiyou had been taking their time with the exam, and Ino didn't like it. She had been complaining ever since the incident with the grass ninjas.

"Oh ease up won't you?" Akumu looked back, still keeping his leisurely pace, "I assure you, that nothing will go wrong. With us around, nothing can possibly harm either of you," Akumu expected some smart ass remark, but oddly one did not come. He put a hand on Taiyou's shoulder, and they both stopped.

Taiyou looked back to see what Akumu was looking at, but there was nothing behind them. Chouji and Ino were right behind them, and now they are were not. He hadn't heard anything, but how was that so? He turned back towards Akumu to ask him if he had heard anything, but now Akumu was gone. He called out for Akumu.

"Yes?" Akumu had been sitting on the ground just under Taiyou's vision. Taiyou was about to bonk Akumu on the head for doing what he did, but then he noticed Akumu wasn't sitting on the ground, but was actually waist down into it.

"What!? What's wrong with you!?" No sooner had he asked, the dirt around Akumu started to pulse and Akumu rose up out of the ground with his legs caught in the mouth of what looked to be a giant sized ant. Taiyou jumped back, and was about to jump in to attack the ant holding Akumu, but Akumu yelled at him.

"Oh no you don't, I got this one!" Akumu yelled, causing Taiyou to stop in his tracks. The ant was starting to go back into the ground when Akumu took action. He grabbed one of the ant's antennae, and with his left gauntleted arm he brought down his fist deep into the ants head. The ant thrashed around, ooze flowing from the hole in its head where Akumu's fist was suck. It flung its head and tossed Akumu away as it fell with one last breath to the floor. Akumu twisted in midair and landed lightly on his feet, his belt boots making a soft thud.

He turned to Taiyou and with his ooze covered gauntleted arm, he gave Taiyou a thumbs-up. Doing this made him actually notice the ooze, and he let out a long, "Ewwwwww," as he ran over to the ants body and wiped the ooze off his arm onto the ants exposed body. Once he had gotten as much of it off his gauntlet as he could, he pushed down on the ant's corpse. It sunk into the ground, and it quickly fell into a tunnel. And then he heard it.

"Taiyou, I hear Ino!" Akumu looked deeply into the tunnel as Taiyou rushed over. That's when he heard the sound.

"It's unmistakable, its Ino's loud scream alright." He glanced at Akumu, "Well, here we go!" Taiyou then jumped down into the tunnel, and Akumu followed after.

The second they dropped into the tunnel they noticed that it was pretty dark. Taiyou was about to make a hand seal when Akumu stopped him. "No. Save that for later, alright?"

Taiyou nodded, and instead closed his eyes as Akumu made a tiger seal, "KAI" Then there was a slight shimmer on Akumu's face. When the light had faded, he rubbed the area around his eyes, "Dang that henge makes it hard to see," he blinked a few times trying to get his eyes to go back into focus, "Alright let us go," he said, and they ran forward into the tunnel.

Luckily enough, as they were running, they heard the loud screeches from Ino, so it was easy to reach her. The only problem however, they were in a tunnel with GIANT ANTS. Suddenly, as they came upon the ants, they heard Chouji scream something, and then two massive hands grabbed the ant that had him, and proceeded to rip it apart.

Since he did not need help Akumu turned to help Ino, but Taiyou was already there cutting the ants head off with a kunai. Akumu then looked down in sadness, as he didn't get to kill anymore.

"Are you alright, Ino-san?" Taiyou asked, as he bent down to see if she was ok.

"Um, y-yes," Ino said, still shaken up from being carried around by a giant bug, "I know I'm a ninja and all, but I still don't like bugs, let alone giant ones."

Taiyou gave another eye smile and chuckled behind his mask, "Don't worry Ino-san, I know of a few adult ninjas that still go into near panic attacks."

Ino grinned at that, and she took his hand when he offered to help her up. As they were walking to Akumu, who was standing with Chouji, they noticed the dejected look on his face. "What's wrong, Akumu?" Taiyou asked.

"I wanted to kill the ants," Akumu said looking down in sadness again.

Taiyou scratched his head, "Don't worry, if this is anything like the common ants you normally deal with, colonies can have some millions of workers," he paused as he thought of something else, "Besides, wouldn't it be better NOT to get your armor disgustingly messy?"

Akumu brightened, "OH YEAH! I didn't think of it that way," and he started to walk off.

Taiyou shook his head as they started to walk around slowly, the only sound being the buckles on Akumu's boots and the metal pieces on Taiyou's shoes, as they hit the ground. After about thirty minutes they wandered into a large, open cavern the ants had made, where Akumu suddenly broke down. "OH NO! WE ARE ON A TIME LIMIT BUT WE ARE STUCK HERE. WE WILL BE LOST FOREVER. IT'S GAME OVER MAN, IT'S GAME OVER!"

Taiyou's eyes widen, "Hey now, stay calm." Taiyou then put a hand on his mask, where his chin would have been, to think. Ino sighed and looked at him as did Chouji. As they watched they saw his eyes suddenly contort as he began crying, "We're . . . lost."

Ino started walking to him, "Taiyou-san," Taiyou dropped to the floor on his ass, as he was sobbing. Ino's stomach sank, wondering if things can get any worse.

Chouji was trying to think of a way to help, when suddenly Taiyou stood up again, "I have an idea," he was suddenly calm again, "Chouji, do you have any sort of attack that utilizes raw power?"

Chouji nodded, "Yes, my Nikudan Sensha no Jutsu."

"Can it be done in mid-air?"

"Sure, I don't see why not."

"Akumu!"

Akumu stopped his panicking almost instantly and said, in a tone with no panic what so ever, "What?" Ino and Chouji fell down at that.

Taiyou pointed towards the ceiling, "You're going to have to throw Chouji up to the ceiling so he can perform his move."

"Right!" Akumu replied. Then, without a second thought, he proceeded to grab Chouji with his right arm and throw him straight upwards.

Chouji hit the ceiling of the chamber with a solid slam, which knocked most of the wind out of him. As he fell back down, Chouji was surprised on how Akumu could throw him so easily with just one arm. The thoughts where cut short when he landed on Akumu, who didn't move out of the way in time.

"I didn't mean to throw him RIGHT NOW!", Taiyou screamed at the smashed Akumu. Taiyou helped Chouji up off of Akumu. Akumu staggered to his own feet, aching all over from being fallen on. Taiyou looked at Akumu and Chouji, "Ok, let us try this again."

"Right!" Akumu grabbed Chouji's arm, and with a nod of readiness from him, Akumu began to spin. Faster and faster Akumu spun, Chouji still in his grasp. Bursts of air started to blow heavily on Taiyou and Ino the longer Akumu spun with Chouji. Ino was amazed at what she was seeing. Chouji didn't weight a lot, but he was heavy enough.

"NOW!" Taiyou screamed.

With a mighty yell, Akumu sent Chouji flying straight up, the air whistling as he got closer and close to the ceiling. "Nikudan Sensha no Jutsu!" could be heard above them, and all the sudden Chouji's flying figure instantly enlarged nearly five times its normal size and his appendages all got sucked in, the whistling noise of his flight being much louder than before.

Down below, Akumu was still spinning slightly, trying to stop the momentum and wishing the walls would stop moving as he bumped into them.

When Chouji hit the ceiling, it immediately crumbled under his force, and he just kept going straight up. He went through many more chambers and tunnels till finally a small speck of light could be seen following his wake.

"Alright! He made it. Let's go!" Taiyou yelled as he started to run up the wall and jump to the opening in the ceiling, then to the opening above that, and so on, towards the light. Ino was right behind him but Akumu was still trying to shake off the dizziness. When the walls stopped moving enough for him to see clearly, the ground started to shake under his feet. The walls were starting to give in from the shock the ceiling took.

Daylight was clearly visible to Taiyou and Ino as they made their way up, "We're almost there!" They stopped just a few levels below the opening.

"Your idea saved us Taiyou-san!" Ino started to cheer, but the look in Taiyou's eyes stopped her, "What's wrong?"

Taiyou had felt the shaking of the walls. All the way up where they were, the shaking was barely noticeable. He looked back to yell at Akumu to hurry up, but the moment he turned around the sounds of the caverns below caving in, came up the holes.

"Did the levels below us just cave in!?" Ino asked Taiyou, her voice full of concern.

"Yes."

Ino had noticed, when they stopped, that Akumu was not behind them. She looked down the hole below them, but it was too dark to see anything and the dust and dirt from the cave-in below had started to rise.

"Dang that was close!" Akumu said as he shot up out of the hole, past Taiyou and Ino, and landed on the level above them, causing Ino to jump slightly. He smiled back down to them, covered in a layer of dirt. As he leaped to the next level, Taiyou started his climb as well, leaving Ino where she was.

She yelled to Akumu, "You jerk! You had us all worried for nothing!"

Meanwhile, outside Chouji had just gotten his dizziness under control when Akumu came up out of the hole and landed next to him. Akumu patted Chouji on the back, "You did a real good job being a high-powered projectile."

Chouji was about to thank him, and ask him how he could have thrown him up so fast and hard, when Taiyou jumped out and landed just behind Akumu. But before Taiyou could move, Ino came up and landed directly on Taiyou. Noticing this, Ino just laughed and gave Taiyou a hug.

Akumu laughed at the two and then looked to the sky, "It's almost evening. It might be a good idea to get away from here and find a place to sleep for the night." He sent a hand through his hair causing dirt to fall from his head. He looked at his clothes and his gauntlet, both were really dirty. He looked at everyone else and could see they all too where dirty, "I think I could use a bath."

_**-Scenebreak-**_

They had left the hole in the ground a long ways behind them before they found a suitable place to camp for the night. Akumu had suggested they find a spot near a river, or some other body of water. As dirty as he was, the rest of the group made no objections

"You guys just relax a while," Akumu said to them as he walked off towards the nearby river, "Taiyou will take real good care of you."

"Akumu!" yelled Taiyou. Akumu turned to face him, whom he could tell was smiling behind his mask, "Catch some fish while you're out there."

Akumu turned back the way he was going and started walking. He yelled "Yeah, yeah!" and just waved his hand, without looking back. This got a chuckle from the rest of them around a small campfire Taiyou was trying to bring to life.

_**-Scenebreak**_

Darkness had fallen by the time Akumu came back from his bath, with about a dozen fish impaled upon a stick in one hand, and his all of his clothes under the other. He was wearing a grey shirt, which oddly enough, had a long left sleeve that pasted his hand yet had no right sleeve, and boxers which had the eye-shaped symbol of his village printed all over it.

He gave the fish to Chouji, who was so very happy to see some sort of food. Ino sighed thinking to herself that even with close to a dozen fish, no one else besides Chouji would get anything to eat. Akumu spread out his recently washed clothes out on a low tree limb to let them dry. When he was done being pleased with his cleaning job, he sat next to the campfire, completing the four-person ring around it.

"Finally some peace," Taiyou said as he pushed his mask up just enough to take a bite of the cooked fish.

AThank goodness for that!" Ino responded as she turned to Akumu to hand him a cooked fish who, with a smile, refused. He was too busy polishing the dark metal plates of his gauntlet, trying to get the crusty ant juices off. Every now and then, he would hold it up to get a good look at it, and Ino could clearly see the reflection of the flames in the gauntlet's plates.

She could also see the flames reflection in his eyes. Then she noticed something. Akumu's eyes were different than from before. During the duo's stay in Konoha his eyes were just like normal eyes, only violet in color. Now they were slitted, much like a cat. As the fire flared bright, they became more slitted, and as it died down, they became less slitted.

"Akumu! What's with your eyes!?" she pointed at Akumu's face.

Akumu's eyes widened. He had forgotten to redo the henge, which he had over his eyes to make them look normal during his visit. He had taken it off so he could see better in the darkness that filled the ant's lair. Taiyou could not believe that Akumu had forgotten, and he knew Akumu was not good at making up lies on the spot.

"Well," Akumu had a nervous look on his face, while he continued to polish his gauntlet, "We have some knowledge of Konoha's recent history. And we know about the attack from the Sound Village. Our villages have met the Sound's leader before, and we didn't know how well Konoha would react to anyone who had any sort of similar trait to him. So I was ordered to place a henge on my eyes to hide them."

"I've never seen the Sound Village's leader, but I heard he was a horrible man," Ino replied.

"And with such delicate negations coming soon, our leaders decided to keep any rash hostilities at bay."

"Don't worry so much, just be yourself and everything will be just fine. If not, then anyone bugging you will have to answer to me!" Ino puffed out her chest and pointed to herself with her thumb.

There was silence for a long while. They all sat in the dark, Ino watching the flames, Taiyou watching the stars, Chouji eating the last of the fish, and Akumu still polishing the last armor plates of his gauntlet. Taiyou decided to break the silence.

"Come now," Taiyou said with a mouth full of fish, "I don't see why you polish it so. It's probably just going to get dirty again soon."

"I know but I just want it to look good, you know, for the babes," Akumu began to laugh to himself.

"By babes, you mean Hina-"

"Shush!" Akumu cut Taiyou off, but it was too late.

"Hinata!?" Ino blurted out. Akumu's blushed cheeks could be seen well on his pale skin, even with the firelight casting dancing light on their faces. She began to laugh in her shrilly voice and Chouji just continued to eat. "She is so quiet and timid," a thought hit her, and she continued, "I guess it makes sense after all, you're loud and outgoing. You'd probably do her some good, or the other way around."

Chouji stopped eating for a few moments, and gave Ino a look. _When did you become romance savvy all of the sudden?_

Ino continued again, "I definitely think it would be good for you too. Opposites do attract, you know."

"Do they?" Akumu looked down at his gauntlet, and thought of the first time he met Hinata.

_~Flashback~_

-- _...Akumu had already rushed towards her, grabbed her hands, and was staring deeply into her eyes causing Hinata to blush,__A__It is quite the pleasure to meet you, Hyuga-san!"_

_Taiyou shook his head, and Ino looked shocked and mumbled, "If only he was polite more often," to which Taiyou chuckled at. Shino just looked, well, like Shino, and Kurenai smiled in amusement. _

_Kiba didn't think it was so funny, and voiced as such as he ran up to them, "HEY! GET OFF HER!" _

_Unfortunately he screamed right into Hinata's ear, to which she screamed, and then all of a sudden Akumu jerked his hand away. He looked down at his hand, seeing a red dot in the middle of his palm. _

_Hinata gasped, and grabbed his hand to look at it, "Oh! I'm sorry! I-I d-d-didn't mean-" _

_Akumu waved his other hand quickly and with a smile on his face, "No worries Hyuga-san!"…--_

_~End Flashback~_

"Have you talked to her at all?" Ino asked Akumu.

"A little," he looked up. There was no canopy of the trees, so the night sky was visible. The stars shone and blinked their eternal lives away, "It was before the first exam."

_~Flashback~_

_--Hinata was walking towards the building the exams were in. She was alone. She had just pushed her way through the crowd, which was already there, towards the door. She stopped when she heard her name called. When she turned around, she saw Akumu with a big smile across his face._

"_Hyuga-san!" he called out again. He smiled, but inside his stomach was full of butterflies._

"_Oh! You're that Dark-nin I met yesterday," she remembered his first actions towards her, causing her to blush again. Now, they were both blushing. "Y-you never did give a name."_

"_My apologies, Hyuga-san. I-"_

_Hinata softly cut him off, "'Hinata'. Please, call me 'Hinata'."_

_Akumu's smile got wider, "Well, Hinata-san, I am __Honshitsu__ Akumu!" he said it loud and with pride, causing many of the other people around them to stare._

_They talked for a bit, and Akumu learned quite a bit about her. During their talk, her voice would get lower and lower, almost like she was embarrassed, though the entire time she smiled and Akumu knew it wasn't there for his enjoyment. He could tell she liked the attention. Every time he looked into those white eyes, she began to blush again and looked away._

_When an instructor came out and told them they were starting the test, Akumu and Hinata walked in. They got to the test room, but his seat was all the way near the front, and hers was in the back. As he walked off, he stopped and turned his head back to her. "How about when this is over, we could grab something to eat, and you can show me around town?"_

_She didn't say anything, she only smiled. Akumu walked to his seat, with the happiest look across his face._--

_~End Flashback~_

"Well that sounds quite wonderful," Ino said to him.

Taiyou had been listening, but Chouji had gone straight to sleep after the fish. Taiyou did not say a word. He only nodded at Akumu, as he began to get ready for sleep. Akumu, having finally decided his gauntlet was clean, got up and put it down next to his drying clothes. He picked up his canteen, and dumped the water onto the fire, and it went out.

It took Akumu a while to get to sleep, his thoughts moving from why he is really there, what has happened so far, and those white eyes. He held up his left arm and pulled the sleeve back, and looked at his exposed arm and hand in the dim moonlight. Black veins could be seen very clearly, and they went all the way from his shoulder to his fingertips.

"Sleep well Akumu. Tomorrow is going to be less fun than today was," Taiyou's voice was soft.

"Then I will just have to make my own fun to make up for that!" Akumu said with enjoyment.

Then there was silence, but eyes were still moving. On the other side of the river, a group of figures were watching them, they mumbled to themselves, and they jumped off into the darkness.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

"Ino."

". . ."

"Ino!"

". . .*snore*. . ."

"Jeez girl!"

Then there was a cold splash of water, drenching Ino, snapping her out of her sleep. Eyes still glazed, she looked up to see both Taiyou and Akumu standing next to, and looking down at, her. Taiyou's arms were crossed and Akumu was holding his canteen, opening down, above her head.

Taiyou looked at Akumu, "Thank you, Akumu."

"Oh, it was . . . my pleasure," Akumu laughed as he walked back towards the river to refill his canteen.

Taiyou turned his attention to the damp Ino, "Ino, we have to get moving."

She rubbed her eyes and after a big yawn, she asked, "What . . . what time is it?"

"It's about five o'clock. Give or take."

"WHAT!? Are you crazy!? I need more sleep!" Ino turned over, her back facing Taiyou.

Taiyou frowned, "I hate to do this, but if you don't get up, I'll have Akumu dump more water on you," he heard something come from Ino that sounded like "Jerk" but he wasn't sure.

Chouji, to Taiyou relief, was much easier to awaken. Akumu had opened up a bag of chip like snacks he had brought from his village; he needed the food for the start of the day. He and Taiyou shared it, and as Akumu reached in and pulled out the last chip, Chouji sprang out of his sleep, rushed over, and grabbed it. With gusto in his eyes, he ate the chip. Unfortunately for him, Akumu likes insanely spicy foods. Next thing they knew, Chouji was dunking his head in the river, and was drinking like mad.

It had taken them little less than fifteen minutes to get everything packed, and to cover their camp to make it seem like they'd never been there. Ino suggested they travel by tree, having the high ground is better for spotting enemy movement.

Akumu took point, Taiyou followed, and Ino and Chouji held the rear. As they leapt from tree limb to tree limb, a conversation was started.

Ino made pace with Taiyou and began to ask, "Taiyou. You're not the least bit tired? We couldn't have had more than 5 hours of sleep."

"Well, in my village, there is light all hours of the day. With such an environment, it can often run amok on ones biological clock when we travel into an area with normal light conditions, and vice versa. So for that reason, along with a few others, we've learned to sleep very deeply in a short time. The deeper we sleep, the less time we sleep.

"Isn't it a bad thing, though, to sleep deep during a mission?" Ino asked.

"That in lies the problem: The deeper we go, the less time we need to rest. But that makes us less likely to detect others around us in our sleep. At first it was something we had to do to cope with all the light, but eventually we found how useful such a skill can be."

Akumu slowed down enough to be alongside the two, "The same conditions apply to my village as well, but the other way around. My village is showed in total darkness all hours of the…well, 'day'. The really deep sleeps are really more like meditation than sleeping. We block out the world to recover lost Chakra, much like with normal rest, but at a much faster rate. Although, we CAN sleep the normal eight hours with a minimal decreasing of our senses, but that's only if we know the area is hot. "

Chouji, who had be listening to the conversation, added in a question, "How short can you make your sleep?"

Akumu and Taiyou looked at each other, as if they were discussing the answer between themselves without speaking.

Akumu spoke, "If necessary, we can condense eight hours of sleep into about an hour. Maybe less," Chouji, and even Ino, thought that was amazing, but then Akumu continued, "But in those cases, we are totally oblivious to the rest of the world. In fact, you could probably set off explosions near someone in that state, and they wouldn't notice the sounds. We can even take punches, stabs, burns, suffocation, etc, and we wouldn't notice."

Ino yawned slightly as they continued running, having not heard the last bit in the least, "I can't believe you had to wake me up so early."

Taiyou glanced at her, "Better get used to it, especially around us. Besides, a ninja should be ready to go at all times after all."

Ino narrowed her eyes and gave him a look obviously still a little grumpy, "Funny that remark coming from someone with such a menial record."

Taiyou's eyebrows twitched as his eyes snapped forward. After a minute Ino regretted saying that and turned her head to him, but he turned his head to her and smiled, "I apologize, Yamanaka-san. Someone as inexperienced as I should not be questioning you," he said as he ran forward extremely quickly.

Ino just opened and closed her mouth a few times, in attempt to say something, causing her to look like a fish.

Akumu just sighed and looked over at her. "I think you just hurt his feelings a bit," Ino blinked a bit and sighed as Akumu continued, "Besides, even academy students know that when you have to get up during a mission, you get up. It's one of the most important things for you to realize. Also, with it being so early in the morning, typically our enemy would less likely to be up, or function well," Ino and Chouji just stared at him. He looked back at them, returning their stare, "What?"

"It's rare for you to speak so intelligently, Aku." Taiyou said from right next to him making him nearly trip, though he did run into, and through, a few branches.

"DON'T DO THAT, TAI!" Akumu all but yelled at his face.

As they started to argue, Ino fell back near Chouji and only sighed, saying to herself, "Boys."

Then without any notice or provocation, both Akumu and Taiyou suddenly stopped. Ino and Chouji were right behind them and had almost no time to stop themselves before they crashed into them.

"What is it, Taiyou-san?" asked Ino, but before she could finish, Taiyou had reached back and placed his hand over her mouth. He removed it, and she didn't speak a word after what she saw next. Taiyou was about to start some hand signs, when Akumu stuck out his hand, balled up into a fist. Taiyou gave him a frown, and then with much hesitation, stuck his hand out in the same manner. Ino was hoping she was watching some sort of super move, but as they started to raise their hands up and bring them back down, her mouth opened agape as she realized she was watching them play Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Taiyou chose scissors, Akumu chose paper.

Akumu's eyes widened as he looked amazed, and then enraged, at the form of paper that was his hand. His head dropped in depression, and he gave Taiyou a slight wave, as if to continue. Taiyou returned to his original stance, and he started a long, slow and nervous, chain of hand seals that ended in a dragon seal. Quietly he spoke, "Hada no Kamereon no Jutsu," and almost instantly Taiyou's form began to fade away, a view of the forest behind him showing through. Soon there was nothing left of Taiyou where he once stood.

Ino heard Taiyou's soft voice, but yet she still could not see him, "I can only hold this for so long Ino, so be ready to act as soon as possible," his voice said to her.

Ino started looking around to see where Taiyou was, but she could not. Then something caught her eye. It was faint, but she could barely make out something causing a distortion of the rest of the forest, directly where Taiyou once stood. A few seconds passed when it finally hit her. _He must have used some sort of camouflage jutsu. I can just barely make him out, if it wasn't for him moving._ She nodded to the response, and as she turned to tell Chouji what she thought just happened, Taiyou started walking across to the tree, and began to climb down it.

As he reached the bottom of the tree, he thought that Ino really was a pretty good ninja, not the best, but had potential to become great. He noticed she had been able to make out the very subtle distortions of his jutsu. _Maybe this trip to Konoha won't be a waste after all_, he thought.

Taiyou walked slowly, towards a small encampment. It appeared to be Waterfall ninjas. After a few minutes of observing them, Taiyou headed back up to his comrades. "It appears to be some waterfall ninja," he said as he was decoking. Akumu grinned as he started to crack his knuckles.

"Then it's our turn!" Ino said brightly and she started to climb down the tree with Chouji following.

Akumu just tilted his head and leaned against the tree, "Should we tell them they know we are here?"

Taiyou's eyes gave away that he was smiling behind his metallic mask, "Nah. This should be interesting."

The second Ino and Chouji stepped on the ground, the Waterfall ninja leapt from their hiding places among the bushes, and engaged them in close combat.

There was man with long black hair tied in a pony tail, who smirked while saying, "Your white dressed friend makes a lot of noise."

Ino cursed at Taiyou, and jumped back, dropping and explosion tagged kunai where she previously stood. Chouji also backed off and moved away as the tag burned itself up and exploded with monstrous fury. Under the cover of the smoke, Chouji was performing his jutsu. As the smoke from the exploding tag started to fade, Chouji busted out with his Nikudan Sensha no Jutsu, charging at them. The leader, was able to dodge it, but he left his men open, and soon Chouji was chasing them around the area.

Chouji was screaming something with fury, but due to the screams of the guys he was chasing after, and his own rolling, it was hard to make out what he was saying. One of the Waterfall-nins turned in mid stride to toss two kunai at Chouji's monstrous rolling bulk, but as they were harmlessly deflected, the waterfall-nin was mowed right over. His fellow ninja jumped away, up a tree, just in time to not be run down, but he noticed that the one that tossed the kunai wasn't so lucky.

Chouji was concerned about the one that got away. But unknown to him, as the guy climbed his way up, Akumu and Taiyou were watching the whole scene, and were waiting for the escapee. The evil grin on Akumu's face made the fleeing waterfall-nin's stomach sink.

After a few minutes of this, the leader shouted, "ENOUGH OF THIS!" He then took out a ceramic bottle from his back pouch, and ripped off the cork with his teeth. As he spit the cork to the ground, he laughed and began to drink from it. Everyone could have sworn his muscles bulged afterward.

Chouji had turned around to make another pass at the leader, but as he got within striking distance, the leader turned and punched Chouji, stopping his roll and knocking him out of his jutsu. He was sent flying over next to Ino, who had made a seal, and had already activated her jutsu.

"Ninpou: Shinranshin no Jutsu!" After the jutsu activated, the man then turned and looked for his teammates. He spotted the one Chouji had mowed down earlier. He was trying to stand up, but his legs were shaky after having been rolled over by a giant spinning man-ball. The leader started walking towards him, grimacing as he tried to resist whatever it was controlling him. The other ninja who was still trying to get up, looked up as his leader was looming over him, "Sir? Wha-?"

The leader hit him hard on the back of the neck, knocking him out. After a minute, when the leader had seemed to be able to gain slight control, Chouji was already behind him, slamming him on the back of his neck, knocking him out as well.

"Alright! Only one more to go," said Ino, as she started to look around for the other ninja that ran. She turned around, and she found the ninja she was looking for. He was hanging upside down by a rope from his feet. In fact, he was all wrapped up and had a gag in his mouth. Stamped on the ninja's forehead was the symbol for "Shori".

Ino heard the sound of heavy feet touching down behind her, and she quickly turned around, throwing a kunai, and not thinking beforehand. As soon as she threw the kunai, her eyes widened, as she started to worry for the person she just attacked. After all, she just threw a kunai at one of her teammates.

Taiyou saw the kunai, and grabbed it out of the air nonchalantly. Ino felt relieved, knowing she had done no harm. Giving the kunai no more than a seconds notice, Taiyou looked to Akumu, who was looking at the tied up ninja.

Akumu looked over his shoulder to Taiyou, smiling, "Ah, as always, a very nice wrapping job, Tai. And the branding was impeccable."

Taiyou just gave a little thumbs-up.

Ino tilted her head, "Wrapping? Branding?"

Akumu just grinned widely as he walked up to the captured enemy, and used his hands to display him, "Wrapping," Ino realized he meant the ropes, when he continued, "AND," he turned the ninja around so Ino could see a symbol for "Baka" burnt onto the ninja's back. "Branding! I even wrote on his forehead for good measure!" Akumu said brightly.

After Akumu turned the ninja back around, Taiyou walked up to him and crouched down so he was at eye level. Ino was looking at him wondering what he was going to do. Then Taiyou lifted a finger and pushed on the Waterfall Ninja's forehead, making the wrapped up person swing back and forth slightly.

"It appears that we have a new punching bag," Taiyou said in a monotone voice.

Akumu grinned widely, as the ninja started screaming behind his gag. Akumu made a punch to the poor man's side, making the ropes snap, and sending the ninja into a tree, effectively going through it, and making the tree fall.

"I was just trying to scare him Aku," Taiyou said with a raised eyebrow.

Akumu grinned sheepishly, and scratched the back of his head. Ino's mouth fell agape after seeing what had just happened. The idea she had been having that something about these two wasn't quite right, was becoming more and more plausible all the time.

"Anyways, I think it would be a good idea for us to split up." Taiyou said seriously.

Ino looked at him, but before she could say anything Chouji walked up, "Why do you want us to split up?"

Taiyou looked over at him, "Because Aku and I are drawing attention. So, we will split away from you so everyone else will follow us, letting you two make it to the tower with less attention. We will fight anyone who comes up, and hopefully get the right scroll," Taiyou turned to Akumu, "By the way, did they have a scroll?"

Akumu just shook his head no.

Chouji and Ino looked at each other. "Then what are we going to do?" they asked themselves.

As they looked back, Akumu and Taiyou were already walking off. Taiyou looked back over his shoulder, "Head to the tower," he said, "and be ready in case we are injured. That way, you guys will be well rested and ready if anyone is following us. Now, Chouji-san, Yamanaka-san, see you later." Then they disappeared.

Ino looked down, as he still called her by her last name. Chouji put a hand on Ino's shoulder, "Come on Ino, he will get over it eventually. At least he doesn't hate you."

Ino sighed and nodded, and they then took to the trees again.

.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

"You think they bought what you said?" Akumu asked Taiyou as they were making their way through the treetops, with considerable speed.

"I have a feeling they did. And even if they didn't, nothing can stop us from doing what we have to do," Taiyou replied.

"If we fail, Hono'o is not going to be happy at all."

At the mere mention of that woman, and her anger problems, a chill went down Taiyou's spine. The last thing either of them wanted to do is get on that woman's bad side. He shook his head, not wanting to really think about it too much.

"Well, in any case, we have a job to do," Taiyou said, "First target is seven kilometers in this direction."

Akumu nodded, "Time to do our stuff," he said as they continued to go in the direction they were going, as fast as they could.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Ino and Chouji were speeding to the tower as fast as possible. They had left Akumu and Taiyou not but half an hour ago, but Ino was nervous, "I don't like how they just ran off."

Chouji nodded, "Asuma is going to be mad that we let them go," the last thing he heard from him rang in his head.

_~Flashback~_

_--"Ino, Chouji, come over here," the voice of Asuma called to them before they got to the building that held the first exam._

"_Asuma-sensei?" Ino asked, as she and Chouji made it to him, "What is the matter?"_

"_Listen to me, you two. Those boys are here for another reason, and it would not be good if they just up and died during the exam. They don't have a big record, so they are probably very inexperienced. That being the case, you need to watch out for them. Understood?"_

"_Yes!" Ino and Chouji replied.--_

_~End Flashback~_

Ino sighed, for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Taiyou and Akumu suddenly stopped at the edge of a clearing in the forest. They both began to examine their surroundings. The clearing let lots of the near noon sun shine down. Not a word was said between them for a few minutes. The sounds of the forest around them seemed to be the only noise, but Akumu's good hearing could pick up the slight sound of people nearby. Taiyou concentrated, and could sense them as well. They each counted three presences, and Taiyou figured by now those that were hiding knew they had been detected.

Akumu stuck out his fist again at Taiyou. Taiyou stuck out his fist in return and after three up-down motions, Akumu chose Rock, Taiyou chose scissors. With a smile, Akumu turned his rock into a thumbs-up and chuckled at Taiyou. Though the mask was in the way, Akumu was sure Taiyou was sticking his tongue out at him.

"Don't take too long, we still have lots to do," Taiyou said as he hoped Akumu wouldn't take his time to have fun.

Both of them heard faint and short laughing in the distance.

Akumu took a few steps forward, while looking back at Taiyou. "Fine, fine! If I MUST, I'll try and keep this down to-," he was interrupted as a kunai came whistling towards Akumu from out of the trees, but he caught it with his gauntleted left hand, mere inches from his head. He picked up where he left off as he casually chucked the kunai over his shoulder, "to a few minutes."

"Also be sure to remember to leave no trace of them behind. Do it like Hono'o said," Taiyou said as he looked down at the kunai lying on the ground.

"Yeah, yeah," Akumu turned his attention back towards the forest around the clearing, and yelled forcefully, "Alright! Show yourselves so we can get this over with!" His tone changed enough to notice.

The light, and goofy tones in Akumu's voice, and on and on his face, were replaced with a sound, and look, of a mix of anticipation, enjoyment, and malice. Taiyou always noticed this from the countless battles they've been in before. At first, he thought Akumu suffered from multiple-personality syndrome, in which a much more vicious side came out when it was time to battle. After studying Akumu more, Taiyou dismissed this theory, and just came to accept it was just a mood-swing Akumu goes through when he was in battle-mode.

Within moments of Akumu's challenge, three seemingly ordinary Sand ninjas flew from their cover. The biggest of the three gave a slight chuckle. "You're pretty good, but unfortunately, just not good enough."

Akumu just looked at him, his body was totally stiff.

The biggest sand-nin continued, "You wanted it fast? Then don't let me slow you down."

All three flung there ninja gear and clothes away, exposing their dark red robes. Two of them wore hoods and looked just like each other, but the leader did not. This hoodless ninja had hair just as red as his robes, and eyes not at all friendly. He looked Akumu over and that is when he noticed the symbol on Akumu's gauntlet. He looked over at Taiyou and saw his mark also. He pushed a loose strain of hair from his face and smiled, "Well, well," the red-haired ninja started, "A dark-nin from Kurai Village, and a light-nin from Hikari Village. How...expected this is? That Sorakage of yours probably sent you to deal with Konoha, didn't she?"

Akumu grinned back at him, "And with that you would be correct, Satsugai of Ketsueki Village. You think those disguises would fool us? We know why you're here and with us in your way, you will not succeed."

Satsugai's smile instantly faded, "Since you know so much about me, then you know I'm not someone you wish to get on their bad side, genin trash!" He closed his eyes and with a most evil grin, he opened his eyes again, within them was a killer look, "I'm feeling real well today. We already killed some Sand-nins for these outfits, so I'm feeling generous. I'll let my friends here take care of you," he waved his hand forward and yelled, "Take care of him boys," and the two hooded ninjas rushed with great speed towards Akumu.

Akumu's grin widened, flashing some teeth. As the red ninjas rushed towards Akumu, they both jumped away from each other, heading for opposite sides of Akumu. Each started an identical set of seals which ended in a Boar seal. They both stopped and slammed their hands on the ground as they yelled something, but Akumu wasn't paying much attention, so he did not hear it. The moment they struck the ground, a furious gust of wind began to blow, and all manner of dirt and rocks started getting picked up.

By this time, Taiyou had moved back some distance and kept a close eye on everything. As he watched, he knew it was some sort of sand-based ninjutsu that causes dirt and sand to be blown around making visibility to be near zero, like being in a sandstorm. He also knew it would not do them any good.

Clouds of lifted dirt enshrouded a large area around Akumu and the red ninjas. With this cover, they quickly resumed their charge. As they came to Akumu, they unleashed a barrage of kunai and shuriken on him. This attack seemed like it would have worked, even if just a little bit, but sounds of the two ninjas flying projectiles striking each other in mid flight rang out slightly over the blowing winds. Satsugai was hoping the dark-nin would have been taken care of by that, but he knew those working for Hono'o do not die easy.

A few seconds passed and the winds finally died down, causing the dirt clouds to settle. Where Akumu once stood was now only a thin layer of dust, and a pile of kunai and shuriken. But there was no Akumu anywhere.

"That attack wouldn't hurt anyone, besides giving them dry-eyes," Satsugai said to himself, "He's hiding, but where?"

The two ninjas looked around, trying to stay alert to anything that might give off his location. As they were looking around, Akumu poked his head up out of one of the ninja's shadow. Before Satsugai had a chance to yell at his underling, Akumu had sprung up all the way out of the lesser ninja's shadow, grabbed on to him, and pulled him just as fast back into his own shadow. As they both sunk entirely into the shadow, it faded away, having left nothing solid to continue to make the shadow. The unfortunate ninja's identical companion rushed over to the spot where Akumu had taken his comrade. There was nothing. He could hear the faint, muffled sounds of something getting pounded, but he could not see where it was coming from.

Satsugai yelled out to the lone ninja as he saw something start to come out from his shadow. The ninja turned as he pulled out a kunai, ready for the attack. But, what he saw was not Akumu, but the bruised and bloody body of his comrade. He kicked his clearly unconscious comrade away from his shadow, still expecting something to happen.

Taiyou saw that it was almost noon. Normally he would worry about Akumu using this move during this time of the day, since about now the shadows are normally too small for Akumu to move through, which would cause him to be stuck on the other-side until the shadows grew. But due to the forest around them, with its constant shade despite the clearing they were in, made this place a perfect battlefield. But, with all these things in Akumu's favor he was still wasting time.

The lone ninja still looked at his shadow waiting. His broken comrade was still lying on the ground where he had been kicked. The broken ninja gave a grunt as he regained consciousness, and struggled to get to his feet. He stood, but he was wobbly, and once he gained his balance he walked over to his comrade. The other ninja felt safer with his comrade back in action. But his security soon came crashing apart as his comrade sent a well powered fist to his face, sending him flying backwards a bit. A little blood trickled out of the corner of the ninja's mouth as he looked at his "comrade" who just punched him.

His comrade grinned as a puff of white smoke burst from him. After dissipating, the smoke revealed not the broken and beaten ninja, but Akumu. Satsugai wondered if he had underestimated these messengers of Hono'o.

From where he was, Taiyou could see the way Akumu smiled, and he knew Akumu was getting really into his fight.

"I guess it's time to break out one of my favorite toys!" Akumu said as he reached into his belt pouch. He pulled out a kunai that was crafted out of some sort of black metal, with a blade a much longer than an average kunai. Attached to the end of it was a long, silver wire. He held the excess wire in his left hand, and he let the kunai end dangle a little from his other hand.

The red ninja quickly got up off the ground as he pulled out another kunai, ready for whatever trick this dark ninja had in store. He had seen Akumu go into shadows, so he would be ready if he were to sink into it again.

Akumu began to spin the kunai around on the end of its wire. The sound of it spinning through the air started whistling louder and louder the faster it spun. He reared the spinning kunai behind him, and with the speed of a gust of wind, he let fly the kunai straight towards the ninja with a forward thrust of his arm.

The ninja saw it coming, but at the speed it was coming at him and with the unusual heaviness of the blade, he was not able stop it but only deflect it away from him. As it zinged past him, he saw an opening in Akumu's defense. He was just about to take advantage of this opening, when he saw the kunai zing past him on his other side. Before he could act, it had wrapped itself around him very tightly, pinning all his limbs down. As he struggled to get free, it seemed the wire itself was constricting him the more he forced himself out.

"That won't do you any good. This special wire conducts my chakra very well and so does the unique metal in the kunai. That allows me to control the blade's direction, speed, and even stretch the wire's length nearly twice its normal length. And as you can see, the more you struggle, the tighter it gets," Akumu smiled when he saw that the ninja still held his knife, and he tried to cut the wire that was wrapped over its blade, but it would not cut, "You should know better than that. You can't cut things made or infused with chakra," Akumu said in a matter-of-fact tone.

The ninja got his knife free from the wire, and made an attempt to throw it at Akumu. Akumu only moved his left arm in front of the thrown blade, making a clang sound as it hit only his gauntlet.

Akumu's smile quickly disappeared from his face, "You asked for it, pal!"

He pulled back hard on the wire, causing the wrapped ninja to fly towards Akumu. As the ninja neared, Akumu reared back his left arm, his gauntleted hand wrapped tightly into a fist. When at last the ninja had reached him, Akumu plowed his fist right into the ninja's face, sending him flying back with great force. Akumu tugged the ninja back in mid flight, and once again gave him a most powerful punch to the face.

Satsugai took a step back in shock, as he watched his last underling get punched around like a ball on the end of string. "You can't be a genin!" he whispered to himself.

After a few more rounds of a beat down, Satsugai watched as his underling finally fell to the ground. Akumu gave the wire a tug, causing the ninja to spin away as the wire unraveled from around him.

Satsugai turned around and tried to make it for the trees. Akumu saw him run, and he flung the kunai into his shadow, and almost instantly it had come back out of Satsugai's shadow, and had wrapped around his feet, making him fall over. With a forceful tug, Satsugai was pulled into his own shadow. Akumu gave another tug and soon after Satsugai came flying out of Akumu's shadow, who was met with a metal punch to his side.

As Satsugai skid and tumbled across the ground, Akumu loosened the wire's grip and pulled the blade back to him. He gathered the wire and placed both it and the kunai back in his belt pouch. He walked over to Satsugai's body, ready to finish this fight. As he was rearing back to give the final punch, Satsugai started to become more plump. He soon began to inflate to way more than four times his size.

Akumu's eyes widened. He jumped back quickly while pulling out the dark kunai. Satsugai finally got so large, he exploded and hundreds of shuriken and kunai shot out in all directions. Akumu was able to deflect most of them with his kunai and gauntlet, but one got past that nicked his right, unprotected shoulder.

When everything was silent, Taiyou ran out of his cover up next to Akumu, who had flopped down to a sitting position, as he looked at the small cut on his shoulder.

Taiyou looked down at him, "He got away."

"Thank you for pointing that out," Akumu snapped. He was still in his slight battle hype.

"At least you took care of his teammates," Taiyou looked around. He only saw the guy Akumu beat back and forth. "Did you take care of the other one?"

"Yeah, he isn't coming back"

"Well that took a little longer than I'd hoped for," Taiyou said as he wandered over to the ninja lying on the ground. He knelt down next to his lifeless body and looked through his pockets. He was looking for the scroll, but just as he figured, this one didn't have it. He looked around the area, "Satsugai can't be far from here. If we hurry, we can catch up with him."

"But we don't know which way he went. His exploding clone swap was executed perfectly. As weak as his fellow ninja were, he was pretty good."

"Well, his friend over here doesn't have the scroll we need."

"Maybe they didn't have one."

Taiyou stood up and walked over to Akumu, who had already stood up and was ready to go, "I'm sure his group hasn't lost it to anyone. If you were an average genin-level ninja, you would have been destroyed from the very beginning. Also if you don't remember, he said he had already killed some Sand-nins to steal their outfit. So I'm sure they have their scroll as well."

Akumu sighed, "I guess so. I just wish I could have finished him. It would've been so much fun."

_**-Scenebreak-**_

As they were walking through the forest, Taiyou kept his eyes perfectly straight in front of him as Akumu was looking all around him. After a while, Akumu turned to look at Taiyou, "You know Tai, this is a very beautiful country."

Taiyou his head to the side to look at him, "It's not as beautiful as ours, but yes I have to admit it has its charm."

Akumu gave a large grin, "And the people we've met so far are interesting," his face then darkened, "though I still don't know what to make of the rest of the villagers."

"They are just your ordinary people Aku, just really stupid," Taiyou gave a sigh and shook his head.

"How did Shidosha put up with them? Just yesterday as I was walking to the exams, I felt feelings of distrust and hate from some of the villagers I passed by. They got something against outsiders?"

"I've also have been getting such feelings from some. If they only knew, then they would know it would be a good idea to abolish such thoughts. Though I'm sure they have their reasons."

"That's no excuse! Never pass judgments on others till you get to know them," Akumu gave a chuckle, "No wonder Shidosha le-"

"That is enough!" Taiyou said vehemently, "If he was here he would have you punished for such talk."

Akumu just gave an angry sigh, "I know, but he has done so much for these people and they-"

"I know, but what happened in the past, is the past," Taiyou then looked up sharply, "Duck."

"I know." Akumu said casually and dropped down, "But I still don't like those people."

"Please Akumu, don't be so dramatic, it doesn't suit you," Taiyou said casually, as a sharply curved sword flew past their heads and then swung around like a boomerang. As it headed back, they jumped up to dodge it again and turned in mid air and landed facing their attacker.

The boomerang was caught by a very attractive long blue haired girl. Taiyou and Akumu, despite being in battle mode, couldn't help but blush at the sight of her. Taiyou narrowed his eyes,  
"Chotto."

The girl smiled a pretty smile, as Taiyou called her by her name, "Tai-kun; it's been a long time." She then looked over to Akumu, "Hi, Aku."

Akumu raised an eyebrow, and then gave her a half-hearted wave.

The girl in front of him was about five-four, an average height for the girls. This girl seemed to be very fit, as any good kunoichi should be, and long legs that were shown thanks to the short teal skirt the she was wearing. She wore a top that was a tad darker and was slightly open on the top that showed a little of skin, which Akumu assumed was for distraction purposes when fighting against someone of the opposite sex. The girl also had emerald green eyes, which seem to fit her blue hair color and average skin complexion. Basically, she looked in such a way that some primitive people might view her as a goddess.

Granted he knew what kind of person was inside that pretty exterior, Akumu almost drooled himself, but stayed composed and looked over at Taiyou, "I still can't get over that you broke off your engagement to this girl."

Taiyou mumbled a bit, "Well, it's not like I wanted to break it off," Taiyou looked up sharply, "but SOMEONE had the nerve to up and cheat on me."

Chotto smiled a bit, "Sorry, I just thought he was the better man."

Akumu took a thoughtful pose, "A better man? But I don't remember dating you."

Taiyou bonked Akumu on the head, making a big welt start to grow. Akumu flopped to the ground, caressing the bump on his head. Taiyou looked back to Chotto and snarled at her, "'The better man'? You're referring to the man who would up and kill small children because he finds them weak, right? Please."

Chotto giggled at the sight of Akumu, "Sorry Tai-kun. I loved you I really did, but I just thought he would be more suited. And he was a superb fighter."

Taiyou smirked under his mask as his eyes darken, "Oh? I kind of remember him begging me to spare him when I cut his legs off and had my wave swords stuck through his mid-section."

As Chotto gasped, and her eyes widened, Akumu got up off the ground, still caressing the bump on his head, "Ah, so there WAS a reason you went after that weakling Roba," Akumu looked over at her, "Sorry girl, but Roba could never touch Taiyou. Even I have trouble fighting him from time to time."

Taiyou shook his head, "Now that I think of it. She always said I should just attack and not hold back in my training sessions."

Chotto was about to speak when Akumu spoke up, "Oh the classic 'he's too nice to harm his family in training, so he must be weak.' deal, eh?" Akumu looked down and shook his head, "I pity her."

Chotto narrowed her eyes at him, "And why is that?"

Akumu sighed, "I just do." He started walking away since this was not his fight. "And I pity you Taiyou, for still loving her."

Chotto's eyes snapped to Taiyou, "What?" she asked in surprise.

Taiyou smiled for the first time since she'd seen him, "Well, I couldn't just up and forget about you."

Akumu yelled from where he was leaning against a tree, "Though he may soon. He has a couple of girls that are after him now. And they sure are attractive."

"Enough of this," Taiyou said as he narrowed his eyes.

Chotto looked back at Taiyou and noticed he took out a scroll and smoke exploded from it. As the smoke cleared he then could be seen holding two Wave-Swords; a sword, which is held in the reverse-style, having a blade that curved from the hilt, which made it look like a crescent-moon. If one were to put two of them together in such a way that if the ends of the grips were placed together, the blades would form a semi-circle. Taiyou's swords, however, zigzagged halfway through the curve, causing the swords to look like perfectly curved lighting-bolts. Taiyou raised a hand and pointed at Chotto, still holding on to one of his swords, "I'm afraid however that I am your opponent."

Chotto gave a pout, "You would really hit your girl with sword?"

Taiyou snorted in anger, "You are nothing to me as of this moment."

Chotto looked slightly hurt at that, "But, Aku sai-"

Taiyou laughed bitterly, "What? You think you can up and leave, and just assume that because I still have feelings for you, you can just come back?" he continued before waiting for her to respond, "Oh no, it's not going be that easy. You have to prove to me that you are worth taking back. That's even if you want to come back, and if I even want you back."

Chotto held up her boomerang-shaped blade, "What does this mean Tai-kun?"

Taiyou laughed darkly, "This is your test, Chotto-chan."

Taiyou then flashed forward and came with a right side horizontal swipe, to which Chotto blocked. Chotto smirked and was about to speak when Taiyou used his leg and kneed her in the gut hard enough to draw her back and then used his other hand to slam into her face to knock her back farther and came with a right side vertical slash. This time however she evaded it by jumping far enough back."You're really out to get me aren't you?"

Taiyou frowned darkly that even she could see from his eyes. "I shouldn't hold back against ANYONE remember?"

Chotto grimaced as she remembered saying that.

_~Flashback~_

_--"Sometimes I don't understand you Tai-kun," a fourteen-year-old girl huffed._

"_What do you mean Cho-chan?" A fourteen-year-old Taiyou asked her._

"_It's like you're afraid to push harder when you go to train. You hold back when you should try with all your might to win," Chotto said crossing her arms._

"_Well, they ARE my family. I just don't want to hurt them."_

"_Well, a real man would do it anyway, and just go through life pushing his hardest." Chotto said loudly._

"_Does that mean you don't think I'm a real man?" Taiyou asked, kind of sad._

_Chotto just remained silent._—

_~End Flashback~_

Chotto was looking down as the memory was there.

Taiyou smiled at her again, "But I always took everything you said, and forgave you. Because those were all your opinions, and who was I to question you?" Then Taiyou looked down sadly, "But then, I started to not see you as much. You stopped coming over, and whenever I went over to your house, you were never there."

Chotto just looked at him while he was talking.

"I always wondered if I was just fooling myself into thinking that you were just busy," Taiyou snorted in amusement, "You know, Mitsume even came and tried to say to forget about you and date her instead?"

Chotto look surprised, seeing as Mitsume was considered one of the most beautiful suitors, like her, on the list Taiyou's family had for him.

"But, you know what I said?" he asked her with a mix of rage and enjoyment in his voice.

Chotto's mouth began to turn dry, as she shook her head to his question.

Taiyou started to laugh, and it started to creep Akumu out. He jabbed one of his blades into the ground, and with the free hand he reached up and placed it on his mask. He took grasp of it, and as he pulled it away from his face, what Chotto saw under it was a grimace so full of pain; his entire face showed the pure hatred he felt. As he tossed it to the ground with little care, he continued, "I said nothing," He pulled his sword out of the ground, and returned to his stance. "After that, I took Akumu with me to go see what was going on. You tried to cover your tracks, but you didn't do too well. Then . . ."

_~Flashback~_

--_Roba hit the wall hard, causing it to crack. As he slid down to the floor, a curved blade impaled him through the chest, pinning him to the wall. Aside from the blade in his chest, he had horrible cuts all over his body, some being deep enough to allow the bone to show through. A hand landed on the hilt, and forcefully pushed the blade in even further. It was Taiyou. He had spent the last hour slowly destroying him, making Roba feel what his heart felt._

_Roba coughed, blood splurging out from his mouth, covering his chin and Taiyou's hand as it pushed harder on the blade. Roba looked up at Taiyou. His eyes were gone, all that was there were orbs of concentrated hate. Roba had never seen him like this. Behind Taiyou, his partner, Akumu, was just looking around looking not all that impressed with what Taiyou was doing, but not exactly worried about it either._

_Roba's thoughts raced. He knew why Taiyou was doing what he was doing, but couldn't believe it. If he had known it would have had been this way, he would have left Chotto alone. He began to feel weak, his eyes wouldn't stay open. As he faded away, Roba could see Taiyou take the other blade and jab at his knee. It hurt, but no sooner had he done it, the pain was gone. And so was he.--_

_~End Flashback~_

Chotto's eyes widened again, as Taiyou's grimace turned to a smile, "Oddly enough, it turns out that Roba was in league with Ketsueki village. That made him a defeated enemy, instead of a murder victim."

"How can you live with yourself?!" Chotto yelled at him, tears forming in her eyes. Not for the loss of Roba, but because she knew what Taiyou had done.

"Who says I do? Though I can never live down what I've done, I've at least atoned for it," he yelled back at her.

Akumu had been out of the conversation the entire time and didn't want to have any part of it. But still, what Taiyou said was true. _We all atoned for something out there. With every opponent taken out, you got closer to redemption, _he frowned a bit with that thought, _though we slew many foes, it still took both of us 50 years to atone for our crimes._

Taiyou continued, "I'm not asking for forgiveness from you or anything. I just want you get out of my way. And if you don't, I'll do what it is you've told me for years: Don't hold back!"

Akumu no longer saw what you would normally call eyes, but he once again saw the orbs of concentrated hate begin to form, the same as that day with Roba. It was happening slowly, but it WAS happening.

Taiyou smiled sadly for a second as he picked up his sword, "You know, the funny thing is, despite the fact I hate you," Chotto looked at him concerned for what he'd say, ", I still love you."

As Chotto's eyes widen, Taiyou charged, his speed so fast he almost seemed to blink out of existence. Chotto however knew how fast he could be, so she brought her boomerang bladed sword up to block blindly, not sure from which direction he would come. The impact of Taiyou's blade hitting Chotto's sword put considerable strain on her wrists, but she was able to keep her guard up as she jumped back trying to follow Taiyou as he came around with another swing. After the swipe was dodged, she was about to retaliate when she was forced to block again, as his foot came up for a kick. She heard the metal plates on Taiyou's heel clang against her blade as she stopped his kick. Taiyou blinked out of existence again, only to come up behind her with a kick to her back. Chotto gritted her teeth as the kick knocked her away. She twisted her body and was able to turn around in mid flight, but Taiyou was already on the move, and he landed a solid elbow to her ribs.

Chotto gritted her teeth again and let off a smoke bomb as she hit the ground. With the smoke everywhere, she quickly rolled away from Taiyou, as far as possible. Taiyou just stood there in his stance as the smoke was clearing, however his eyes widened when he heard, "Fuuton: Kazekaritoru no Jutsu!" A mach force gust of wind blew the smoke away, as it headed towards Taiyou. Chotto however was moving herself knowing Taiyou would easily dodge it.

Taiyou knew about this move. It was a powerful, moving wall of wind. If it was just that, it wouldn't be much of an attack, but behind that wall of force were currents of the wind that moved so fast to be able to leave deep scratches in the hardest of metals. The wall hits you and knocks you defenseless as the blades of air slice you.

Chotto kept her eye on Taiyou, but she couldn't believe what she seeing. Taiyou just stood there, as the wind shear hit him and split him in two at the waist. She was about to scream, cry, anything, as she saw Taiyou's form separate in two. Both halves exploded into waves of blue energy, almost as if it looked like they were unraveling.

_Kaze Bunshin?! _She thought as she stopped to look around, until her woman's intuition told her to duck. She did, and not a moment too soon. Taiyou flew over her with his hands together and his blades spread out. A few strains of blue colored hair had been cut as Taiyou flew over her, drifting behind Taiyou in his wake.

Chotto went after him as he landed and slashed out with her blade. Taiyou blocked the attack as he was crouching, then he leaned back, put one hand on the ground and pushed his legs up and kicked her into the air. As she was moving up, Taiyou blinked out of existence and appeared above her spinning, and as she approached him, he kicked her using his momentum, sending her to the ground. Before she hit, she made a futile attempt of attacking by throwing her blade at Taiyou. As she landed, the ground shook, and the ground cratered slightly as she landed. The blade spun at Taiyou, who only sliced at it with his own sword, sending it flying straight for Chotto. It dug deeply in the dirt as it landed inches from her head.

Taiyou started doing seals, even though he was holding his wave swords. He yelled, "Fuuton: Kazeryu no Jutsu!"

The wind started to pick up speed, as it began to spin around his body, blowing dirt around and picking up leaves. Soon a small tornado materialized around Taiyou and began to grow. The roar of the moving winds was defining to Chotto, who tried to move, but her body felt heavy. The tornado shot up higher and its circular, abstract form began to change. It started to morph into the shape of a mighty dragon. It opened its massive jaws and gave a windy roar, as it started flying straight for Chotto.

Chotto kept trying to move, but the beating she got from Taiyou left her still numb. She saw the dragon homing in on her but could do nothing to stop it. As it connected with her, the ground exploded as the fury of the wind ripped the ground up, throwing dirt, rocks, and many other things in every direction.

"This is freaking cool!" Akumu said with a big grin, as debris flew past him.

It continued to drill into the earth for a few seconds. Soon, the attack started to come to a close, and the raging winds quickly died down. When it was all over, Taiyou walked to the edge of the hole in the ground, where Chotto had once stood, and looked down into it. Chotto had many cuts across her exposed flesh, and her clothing was mostly shredded.

She was still breathing, but barely, and she wondered how she lived through that. She felt really tired, and had a hard time keeping consciousness.

Taiyou said to her, "I find it kind of funny, you know?" Chotto looked up at him, but she couldn't keep him in focus or reply, as he continued, "After all those times you said I shouldn't hold back, I beat you without needing to call my blood-limit."

That was the last thing she heard before what light she could see from her hole started to fade into darkness.

Taiyou just shook his head as he sheathed his swords on the holsters that were on the back of his belt, and took out a small scroll and summoned a cloak out of it. After doing so he put the scroll away, and wrapped Chotto in the cloak.

As Taiyou approached Akumu, Akumu handed him his mask and let out a whistle, "Psychotic much?" Taiyou just rolled his eyes. Akumu continued, "And, not to be a pervert, or anything, but she has some nice 'assets'."

Taiyou raised an eyebrow at him, "What about 'Tsunade-sama' or 'Hinata-chan' huh?"

Akumu grinned and drooled a bit as was lost in various thoughts that raced through his mind. Taiyou just chuckled and patted him on the back as he started walking, with Akumu in tow.

The once peaceful clearing, which it was only fifteen minutes prior, was now totally in shambles.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

"Ah! There's the tower, finally!" Akumu said as he and Taiyou were starting to near the tower. Akumu wanted to hurry and make it back to Ino and Chouji, but Taiyou refused. Taiyou wished to walk as he carried Chotto, for he had put a little too much energy into his attack than he had planned, and she was in seriously bad shape. At their walking pace, the day was nearly over.

Taiyou just nodded and then stopped as his eyes narrowed, "Akumu. We forgot something."

"No! Don't say it!"Akumu yelled as he flailed his arms about. He knew Taiyou was referring to Satsugai. Hono'o had told them specifically to not let him escape, and they had done just that. He was hoping to find him at a later time, but it seems that he wasn't going to get that chance.

"We have to do it. You know that."

Akumu let out a loud moan, "Well let's take care of her and check up on Ino and Chouji first." He squinted towards the tower, scanning across its walls. He smiled with relief when he saw the tiny forms of a skinny person and a very plump person standing near some doors on the side of the tower, "And, I do believe that's them there. It's nice to see they made it in one piece."

Taiyou nodded, "Yes, this makes things from here on out a bit easier to deal with."

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Ino had been sitting on the steps to the door of the tower, for what seemed to her like forever. Chouji wasn't much of a conversationalist, doing nothing but stuffing his face with snack after snack. She wondered for a while where he was getting all these snacks, and how much he had, but some things are best left unanswered. She brought her knees up to her and crossed her arms over them, and gave a deep sigh. Chouji stopped in mid munch, and only looked at Ino. She thought for a moment that he would finally say something, but after a short pause, he went right back to stuffing his face.

She stretched out her legs and flailed her arms about, giving a loud grunt, "Why did they have to go on by themselves?! For all we know their laying dead somewhere! Asuma-sensei said to watch after them, but we just HAD to let them go!" She jumped up to her feet, "Chouji! We're going to go look for them! Keep your eyes open!"

Before Ino could take her first step, Chouji pointed an arm towards the edge of the forest, his bag of snacks stuck to that hand, "There."

Ino looked in the direction he had been pointing. She saw two people, one all in black, one all in white. The one in black was waving widely towards them as they walked closer. The one in white was walking behind the one in black, so she couldn't totally see that one, but she knew who it was without a doubt. "It's them! Taiyou and, uh," she was waving back, but she couldn't remember the name of the guy in black.

"It's Akumu-san. Jeez Ino, can't you think of anyone but Taiyou-san?" Chouji said between mouthfuls.

She looked back at Chouji, "Yeah, yeah," and then she stared walking towards Akumu and Taiyou.

Akumu saw Ino walking towards them, and he was glad to see they were both safe. He turned towards Taiyou, who was carefully holding Chotto in his arms, "You know Ino isn't going to like your little friend."

"I know. For now let us just keep the connection between me and Chotto between us. It might affect her concentration if she knew, and right now we need everyone to be focus for what is to come," Taiyou said as the space between them and Ino started to shrink.

"Whatever you say. But this is starting to get confusing. Adding Ino and Tenten to the list, which consisted of Chotto and my sister, there is like, some sort of love-pentagon going on."

Taiyou felt slightly embarrassed when Akumu said that, "Honestly, I try not to think about it. Enough with this talk, Ino is getting closer."

Akumu laughed and then waved towards Ino, yelling to her, "Hey! Glad to see you made it!"

"I can say the same thing to you!" Ino yelled back at him. Now that they were closer, Ino could see a large, bulky object covered in cloth, in Taiyou's arms. It almost seemed like it was in the shape of a person. However, soon she was distracted by the fact that Taiyou didn't have his mask on. _He should really leave it off,_ she thought idly with a slight blush. She picked up her pace, and closed the distance between them.

"Nice to see you again, Yamanaka-san.", Taiyou said, as he shifted the weight in his arms slightly.

Ino's heart sunk a bit, when she heard him call her that. She once again noticed the bulk Taiyou was carrying, and she now saw it was a person. She couldn't see who it was, for the figure was totally wrapped up in cloth. Ino looked at Taiyou, "Who is this?"

Taiyou looked down at Chotto's figure, "An injured ninja we found on our way here who is very badly wounded. We're hoping someone here at the tower could help, so we brought her along."

"Her?" Ino gave Taiyou an interrogative look.

"We don't know her name. But I felt we needed to help whoever she is," Taiyou glared at her slightly.

Ino felt her stomach move a bit from Taiyou's look, "Well there will be help inside. Let us get moving," She turned around to head back to Chouji. But as she started to walk, she started talking again, "By the way, did you guys ever find that last scroll?"

"Damn! I knew we forgot to do something!"Akumu blurted out.

Ino's eyes widened as she began to yell at Akumu and Taiyou, "WHAT DID YOU SAY!? WHAT EXACTLY HAVE YOU TWO BEEN DOING ALL DAY!?"

This caused Akumu to laugh nervously, and Taiyou to groan with embarrassment. Before Akumu could respond to Ino, something shot out from the forest and was heading right for Taiyou.

The whistle of a small projectile sung out as something was flying towards the group. It was moving too fast for anyone to deflect, let alone notice till it was to late. Right before it hit Taiyou from behind, the projectile exploded with great force, sending everyone airborne. Ino had been in front of Taiyou and was saved from the explosion, but was still knocked quite some distance away. Akumu wasn't able to deflect it, but had enough time to jump far enough away, before the projectile went off, to keep from being injured. Taiyou did his best to dodge, but he still took most of the hit from the explosion. Chotto was sent flying out of his arms, as Taiyou flew forward and skidded across the ground.

As soon as Akumu touched down on the ground, he saw Chotto falling. As quick as he could, he pointed towards her and yelled, "CATCH HER!"

Upon command, his shadow began to stretch out across the ground with amazing speed towards Chotto. As it got close to her, his shadow quickly reached up off the ground, which looked like thick black goo erupting from under the ground, and grabbed her in mid-air. It slowly brought her to the ground, and as soon as she was safe, the shadow let her go and shrank back towards Akumu.

Once Chotto was safe, Akumu quickly turned his attention to Taiyou, who was lying sprawled out on his stomach on the ground, his clothes smoking. Akumu rushed as fast as he could towards Taiyou, but kept his eyes moving from tree to tree around him. He knelt down beside Taiyou to check the damage. Luckily, Taiyou had learned to wear fire resistant clothing from training with Akumu for so many years, but Taiyou still had some bad burns on his unprotected arms, and a good portion of his long hair had been burnt.

Taiyou let out a grunt and clenched his fist, grabbing some dirt. He looked up, but as he did, the burns on the back of his neck stung him badly, "Chotto," he said in a wispy voice.

"She is fine," Akumu looked around, and he saw Ino pulling herself up off the ground and Chouji who abandoned his snacks to help Ino, "Ino didn't get much of that blast. You're a pretty good meat-shield, you know that, Tai?"

"Now isn't the time for jokes," Taiyou said giving him an indignant look as he tried to lift himself. His arms burned, but it was nothing he couldn't deal with, "What the hell just happened?"

"We got sucker punched! Someone got the drop on us from the cover of the forest," Akumu replied, as he continued to scan the edge of the clearing.

"How can that be? They must be pretty good to get the drop on us."

Akumu's eyes widened, "Satsugai!" He slammed his fist into the ground, "I should have known it was him! Satsugai, 'The Cannonball Ninja'. He works with long-range explosives," he turned to Ino and Chouji's direction and began to yell, "YOU TWO! GET INSIDE THE TOWER! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS OUT HERE!"

Ino had just gotten back on her feet, "WHAT ABOUT YOU?!"

"WE'LL BE FIN-," Akumu stopped as he heard the whistle again. As he looked behind him, see saw a high speed, head sized rock frying right at him. Akumu gritted his teeth when he noticed the rock was covered completely in exploding tags. With a swift movement, he raised his hand, causing his shadow to surge up, making a gooey looking black wall. As soon as it was up, the rock hit the shadow wall and exploded with the same force as from before.

Akumu lowered his hand, and the wall sunk back down, "He is underestimating us again. Such explosives won't penetrate my defenses," Akumu slung Taiyou's right arm over his shoulders and helped Taiyou to his feet, "Go to Ino, she'll take care of you. We can't have you being exploded into many pieces. It would be too hard to explain to Chotto, Hono'o, my sister, and your mother why you're dead, and all over this forest."

Taiyou smiled, and with a slight limp, Taiyou made his way quickly to Ino and Chouji. Once he made it to them, the both supported Taiyou as they ran, as much they could, towards the door to the tower. As they walked, Taiyou motioned to Chotto, "Do not forget the girl," Chouji carried her, as Ino continued to help Taiyou towards the tower.

Akumu turned back to where he saw the rock come from, then he heard it again, the whistle. He had enough time to clearly see where it came from, and was ready. He yelled off into the distance, "YOUR TRICKS ARE GETTING QUITE DULL, SATSUGAI!"

Akumu extended his left hand out as he ducked down to dodge the bomb-rigged rock. As soon as it passed over him, he stood back up while turning around and motioned as if to reach out for the rock. His shadow shot out towards the rock, the black goo forming a crude, clawed hand as it grabbed the stone. The shadow stretched as it was slowly spending the rocks momentum, trying not to make the tags go off. No sooner had the rock stopped; Akumu whipped his body around and made a motion much as if he was throwing a stone himself. In total sync with Akumu, his shadow slingshoted the stone right back from where it came.

As it hit the trees the stone exploded, blasting trees right out of the ground, sending twigs and splinters flying in every direction and out from this blast shot up Satsugai. Akumu jumped up to meet him as he flew from his cover.

Satsugai was going to stop pulling his punches, since this helpless brat had proved himself to be anything but helpless. But before he could act, Akumu had already jumped all the way up, and had crashed into him in mid air. As they connected, Akumu gave Satsugai a mighty punch to the gut with is gauntleted fist, sending him careening to the ground.

Satsugai hit the forest floor, and he heard something in his waist crack, that made him grimace with pain. _How can this be? I can't keep up with this guy!_ He tried to crawl away, because his left leg was numb and he could not stand. Before he could move, Akumu landed on him with both feet planted deeply into his stomach. Satsugai couldn't help but cough up some blood as Akumu landed on him. With a quick leap, Akumu had jumped off of him a few steps away. Satsugai tried to speak, but Akumu had knocked the wind straight out of him. Now, Satsugai couldn't feel either leg.

Akumu slowly walked towards the near-dead Satsugai. Akumu chuckled a bit and looked down at Satsugai, "Any last words?"

Satsugai opened his mouth to ask for mercy, but the words just couldn't come out.

"Well, I guess not," Akumu said as he knelt down next to Satsugai, and he rummaged through Satsugai's belt pouch. With a grin, he pulled out two scrolls. Along with the scrolls Akumu found a big stack of exploding tags. Akumu looked at the scrolls quickly: one seemed to be Satsugai's personal scroll and the other was an Ice scroll, which was the last scroll Akumu needed. The black symbol for "Ice" stood out nicely against the icy-blue paper. He placed both the scrolls in his own belt pouch, and then turned his attention to the stack of tags.

Satsugai tried to stop Akumu, as he started to place tag after tag all over his body. Akumu casually knocked Satsugai's hand away, and as weak as he was, Satsugai couldn't fight back. Akumu had placed nearly thrity tags over Satsugai's body, and he placed the last tag smack in the middle of the broken man's forehead.

Akumu grabbed Satsugai's arm and stood up, lifting most of him off the ground. Akumu could barely hear Satsugai beg for mercy as he threw him hard into the air. As Satsugai flew away, Akumu smiled and waved goodbye.

"Boom!" Akumu yelled. A moment later, all the tags on Satsugai went off.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Ino and Chouji had made it inside the tower with Taiyou. Ino let go of him and Chouji placed Chotto down softly next to Taiyou, and they rushed back to the doors, franticly trying to close them. As the doors were closed shut, another explosion went off, making the ground shake a bit. The looks Ino and Chouji gave each other showed their worry.

"You don't have to worry about him," Taiyou said to them without turning to look at anyone.

"How can you say that?!" Ino yelled back at him, "He is your friend, yet you turn your back on him like that, after he tried to save you! He'll be killed!"

"Why is it that you believe this?" Taiyou calmly asked to her, still not looking at anyone.

She was struck speechless for a moment, "Asuma-sensei told us about your record. He told us you weren't exactly the best of all ninja. He told us that you barely met the requirements to even participate in the exam."

Taiyou laughed a bit, "Trust only what your OWNeyes show you, not the words spoken to you or that which you read on paper."

Before Ino could respond, outside there was a massive explosion, much bigger than the one before. It shook the walls violently, and made everyone lose their balance. Ino caught herself from falling over.

"What was that?!" she shouted as the walls reverberated a bit.

Taiyou only answered with one word, "Boom."

They stood there in silence for a few moments. A few seconds went by, but those seconds turned to minutes which seemed to stretch on forever. Then there came a knock on the doors. Ino took a step back as she reached into her side pouch for another kunai. Chouji had one hand on a kunai, another on a box of food pills. Once again the silence was interrupted by the knocking. Ino took another step back.

Then Taiyou then spoke up, startling her a bit, "You know, you should really answer that. It's awfully rude to leave a door unanswered, Ino-san," he softy smiled at her as he took his mask out of his belt pouch, and attached it to his face.

Ino's spirits picked up when she heard him call her that. Reassured, she nodded to Chouji and they both pulled open the doors. The doors only got open slightly when a scroll went flying into the room. It hit the floor and rolled over to Taiyou.

Taiyou picked up the scroll and looked at its cool blue wrapping, "How nice. The scroll we needed just happened to fly right into the room at the last minute."

"Oh yes. It's kind of funny how things turn out like that," Akumu said as he causally strolled into the room when Ino and Chouji opened the doors enough for him to squeeze through.

"You're alright!" Ino all but yelled out as her voice reverberated off of the walls.

Akumu took a pinky to his ear, "Well, I WAS."

Ino growled and plowed a fist into the top of his head, "Are you saying I'm loud?!"

Taiyou chuckled, "Now, now Ino-san, a pretty lady shouldn't commit such violence when unnecessary."

Ino blushed at that as Akumu looked at Taiyou incredulously, "Great, now she is gonna be distracted."

Ino growled again and punched Akumu and he went skidding away.

Taiyou decided to speak before it went any farther, "Anyways, I believe we should finish the exam."

Ino nodded as Chouji walked forward with the scrolls and laid them all down opened, as smoke starting to billow from them. Then a popping sound occurred as Asuma appeared.

"Ah, good to see that all of you have made it through," Asuma said, "with days to spare even. I take it the exam wasn't too troublesome?"

Ino rolled her eyes, "If lazy ass was here it would be."

Asuma laughed, but stopped as his sight fell upon Chotto, "And who is she?"

Taiyou chuckled a bit, "Product of a good conscience."

Asuma raised an eyebrow, "Was it you who had beaten her, or just being chivalrous?"

Akumu smiled, as he spoke for Taiyou, "Chivalrous."

Asuma again raised an eyebrow, but decided to keep his mouth shut on the subject, "Well now all of you get some well deserved rest then, eh?"

Akumu grinned widely, "YOSH, time for FOOD!" To this Chouji cheered with him. Akumu started to run forward, but his pants dropped to show his boxers which had little ramen bowls on them as he fell flat on his face, "Shit! Another belt broke!"

Taiyou just shook his head as Ino's forehead vein popped as she slowly started walking to him. Everyone turned away as they heard massive a mighty punch land on skull, "IDIOT!"

A/N:

**-D-: **Jeez. 27 pages gone over in search, and in correction, for grammar errors, inconsistencies, and for any old thing we don't like anymore. If you believe your translation (from English to Japanese) to any of our moves sounds grammatically better, or just plain more right, then please let us know and we'll be glad to fix it.

Translations:

Fuuton: Kazeryu no Jutsu: _Wind Release: Wind Dragon Technique_

Fuuton: Kazekaritoru no Jutsu: Wind_ Release: Wind Shear Technique_

Kamereon Hada no Jutsu:_ Chameleon Skin Technique_

Shidosha: _Leader_, specifically _"One who guides"_

Shori: _Victory_


	4. CHAPTER 3: Day of the Clashing

CHAPTER 3: Day of the Clashing

_It has been a day since we entered the tower, and so far we are the only team to make it, _Akumu thought to himself as he wandered around a wide, open room. He, and the rest of his group, was brought to this large room after they spoke to Asuma. They were told to wait here till the other groups managed to arrive, and so far, that was no one but them. Akumu looked up toward the walls. On either side, there were stairs that led up to spectator ledges, which stretched across the wall to one end that had a large statue carved in it. On one side he could make out Ino's voice, yelling about something.

_Poor Tai. I'm sure Ino is over there fussing at him about letting his guard down and getting injured. _Akumu chuckled to himself as he wandered out into the middle of the room, _If only she knew! Then maybe Tai could actually have some peace, and be able to think about the mission Hono'o gave us._ Akumu shook his head as a shiver went down his spine with the mere thought of her.

_It's best if I don't think about her right now. I wouldn't want to give the plot away too soon_. Akumu winked at no one. (A/N: This is one of those weird moments when the characters break the forth-wall.)

Akumu looked back up to the ledges, as he saw someone walk up to the railing on the edge. It was Taiyou. His arms and neck were completely bandaged. _You learned to wear fire-resistant clothes Tai, but you never learned to wear sleeves,_ Akumu shook his head, _Lucky for you, when Asuma called for some medics to take Chotto away to the hospital, you were able to snag some medicines for your burns. Only a day to rest, you think that's going to be enough time?_

Akumu heard sounds of heavy doors opening, from behind the great doors to this room. The room that they were at when they entered the tower was on the other side. He looked up to Taiyou, who nodded, showing he heard it too. Akumu rushed over to the stairs and went up onto the ledge.

"What's wrong?" Ino asked Akumu as he walked up to them.

"We have company," He responded to her with a grin.

As the doors opened, Kurenai's team walked through the doors. Ino smiled and waved to them, "Ah, I knew they would make it." Then she took a deep breath and said VERY loudly, "HEY! HINATA, I'M GLAD YOU MADE IT!" Taiyou immediately cringed as Akumu, once again, was twisting his fingers in his ears for the fourth time that day, and the ringing was STILL there.

The entirety of Kurenai's team, including Kurenai herself, looked up at Ino in shock. _How did they get here so quickly?_ This was the thought of everyone as they walked up the stairs to talk to them.

Kurenai was the first to speak, "Hello, I am pleased to see you have all made it," she was looking them over and when she got to Taiyou, and saw the bandages, her eyes widened, "Oh my, what happened to you?"

Taiyou suddenly turned sheepish and looked to the side.

Akumu himself grinned and rubbed a hand behind his head, "Well, you see, we had a run in with a ninja who liked to use explosives, and well, did you happen to see all the destruction outside the tower?"

Hinata snapped out of her daze as she was watching Akumu, since the way Akumu was turning sheepish and rubbing his head was exactly like a person she knew, "Yes, there was a lot of debris scattered around the area, and many craters that looked like explosives have gone off."

Akumu nodded and mentioned, "And well, that happened all over Tai's back yesterday."

"OH MY, Taiyou-san are you ok?" a familiar female voice asked.

As they turned toward Taiyou, they could see a girl with buns in her hair, checking over him as he was trying to reassure her with a smile. Ino was close by looking scandalized, as Chouji's eyes widened and he stepped away from Ino.

"Oh, it's the Bun-Girl!" Akumu said and he turned to look at the stairs and exclaimed, "And, and, and there's Girly-man, Man-dex and Bowlcut-boy."

When everyone looked at him, including Tenten who had an annoyed expression and Ino who was looking confused like everyone else, he looked at them and sighed and walked up to Tenten, as the rest of Gai's team appeared and joined the group.

Akumu, as he got to Tenten, pointed at her hair buns and said, "Bun-girl," Then he turned on his heel and walked up to Neji and stood beside him and moved his arms in a way as if he was presenting him, "Girly-man," This caused Neji's right eyebrow to twitch, but Akumu didn't notice or did not care as he stood in between Gai and Lee. He grabbed at Gai's arm, pulling the spandex a little, "Man-dex," and he turned and placed a hand on Lee's head and said, "and Bowlcut-boy," Gai and Lee only had on huge smiles as they took it as a complement.

Gai looked to Lee and said to him, "HA! Our wonderful fashion has made us most noticeable!"

Ino just looked at Akumu weird and asked, "Why not just call them Tenten, Neji, Gai, and Lee?"

Akumu tilted his head with an inquiring expression, "Who?"

Everyone fell over, except for Taiyou who was already down.

"You're too weird for words, do you know that?" Ino asked him.

He only smiled, as everyone started to go about their business preparing for the fights ahead.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

"So, how about him?" Ino asked Akumu as she pointed toward Kiba. Their group had been standing on the upper ledges, looking down at the others, waiting for more teams to show up. Ino had been pointing to random people, seeing what Akumu would call them by.

"Dog-breath," Akumu said with a bored tone as he used the rails to hold himself up.

"What about his dog?"

"Puppy," Akumu smiled stupidly to himself.

"Well what about him?" She pointed to Shino.

"Scary-Shades Man."

_That's close enough to the point,_ Ino thought to herself. She pointed over to Hinata, "and her?"

Akumu's eyes grew large, as bright speckles of light shone from them. Sparkles danced around his body as he sighed as he said her name, "Hinata-chan."

His voice trailed off, as Ino gave him a concerned look. She picked off the little spackles floating around him. They were just little pieces of paper on the end of wire hanging down around him. She waved her hand in front of his face, but she got no reaction out of him. She turned away from Akumu toward Taiyou, and she noticed Tenten bugging him. So, to aid her comrade, she huffed and stomped over to them, "Tenten! Leave him alone. He needs to rest."

Tenten glared at her, "Hey now, maybe he wouldn't be hurt if you were to look after your teammates."

Ino gritted her teeth, "Well he doesn't want YOU near him pestering him!"

"I don't pester!"

"YOU DO!"

Taiyou was trying to talk to them, "Um girls-"

"DO NOT!"

Taiyou tried to interrupt again, "Girls!"

"DO TO!"

Taiyou just sighed and took out his wave swords and starts to wipe them off so they are presentable for the fight. He looked around as he saw that there were enough people to begin the next round of the exams, but they weren't starting. Taiyou figured they must be finishing something before they can start.

Ino looked down at Taiyou to ask him to tell Tenten that she is, in fact, pestering him, "Taiyou would you please- . . . Wait, what are those?" She asked, pointing to his swords.

Tenten, at the sudden stop of Ino looked down at Taiyou and noticed the blades and immediately became starry eyed. "Wow, look at those swords."

Taiyou looked at them and smiled, "These are my Wave Swords. A type of sword designed to be used reverse-style."

Tenten looked at him with puppy eyes, "May I hold them? Please?"

Taiyou couldn't help himself, and handed them to her, _I hope nothing will happen when she holds them._ Taiyou was eyeing her quietly as Tenten lifted them up, and to his astonishment, nothing happened. Ino was looking at him weirdly, "Why do you look so shocked?"

Taiyou glanced at her a second, "I'll explain in a second. Tenten-san, you are holding them incorrectly."

Tenten looked at him and then at the swords. As she looked at them she started to take them in. The blade itself looked almost as if it was made of silver as it shone very brightly, but it must have been a little dull, since Taiyou was just about to clean it. If you were to look at the blade starting at the hilt, the blade seemed to look like a normal curved sword until the blade seemed to zigzag before continuing and curved even more. At the end of the blade, the tip seemed to cut in the opposite direction of the curve

To Tenten, it looked like a curved lightning bolt. When she looked at the hilts, she noticed that they were different colors. One was blue with the word _Fenikkusuryuu_ and the other was white with the word _Fenrir_.

"I am?" she asked.

Taiyou nodded and walked up to her and gently placed the blades, which Tenten was holding like a normal sword, seemingly upside down in her hands, "There aren't many people who know about Wave Swords, or even how to hold or use them."

Tenten's eyebrows furrowed as she held them, "Wave Swords. My father has mentioned them, but he never really got to find any."

"Makes sense," Taiyou said as he was watching his sword still, " Since they are quite difficult to use properly, not many people attempt to make them. And over time their existence has all but disappeared. But these are special."

"Special?" Ino and Tenten said together.

"It might be easier to just show you," Taiyou turned around, and saw a group of Sand-nins right next to him, looking down over the other groups. He tapped on one of the ninja's shoulder and asked him if he would not mind holding one of his swords, to show Tenten something. The ninja was not exactly sure what was going on, but he uneasily took one of the blades.

At first nothing happened. But a few seconds went by, and the hilt suddenly felt warm in the ninja's hand, and a humming noise was coming from the blade. Out of nowhere, electricity started to flow from the sword into the poor ninja, who started spasming and screaming.

Taiyou reached over and grabbed it out of the ninja's hand. The ninja fell to the ground, smoldering, an electrical discharge occasionally showing itself. The ninja's teammates rushed to his help, but he was out cold.

Akumu was snapped out of his stupor from the screams of the ninja. He looked down at his burnt form, and then looked back at Taiyou, "Did you give him your sword?"

Taiyou only nodded.

Akumu looked around for someone to get this shocked ninja out of here, "WE'RE GONNA NEED ANOTHER TIMMY!" Everyone gave him an odd look, even the one who was shocked to hell woke up just to look at him weirdly, before passing out again.

Akumu looked around at the people, "What?"

Taiyou just shook his head and turned toward the sand shinobi, "I apologize, he should be fine in a few minutes. The charge was lower than it was going to be if I let him continue to hold on to it."

The sand shinobi glowered at him before bending down to prop his comrade against the wall, "Warn us next time, will ya?"

Taiyou nodded. He turned to Tenten and Ino to see them looking from his sword to the fallen shinobi, though Tenten had a look of apprehension. To this he chuckled, "Don't worry Tenten-san, if it was going to attack you, it would have already done so."

Tenten just blinks at him, "Then why hasn't it yet?"

Taiyou just shrugged, and looked at her and the sword in wonderment, "I don't know, it's never happened before," Suddenly he turned sheepish, "Normally, I wouldn't have let you hold it, but I am susceptible to puppy eyes."

Tenten blushed and was just about to speak when Akumu placed a hand over her mouth, "The time for talking is no longer upon us," He removed his hand and pointed down to the other groups below them as they started to come together, "It's starting!" he yelled as vaulted over the railing.

Taiyou looked over the rails as he saw Akumu sprint over to the group. He looked towards Ino, Chouji, and Tenten, who was returning his sword, as he made his way down the stairs.

All the team leaders had everyone stand in orderly lines, though none of them were with their respected groups but, more or less, scattered about. Everyone was quite. Akumu and Taiyou had a vague idea of what was to come, but all in all, they were clueless about the details.

Akumu looked to his right, and a big smile crossed his face as he saw Hinata was standing next to him. She had been looking at him, and when Akumu noticed her, she quickly looked forward, her cheeks a bit blush. When she looked back at him, he gave her a toothy grin and thumbs-up, "Good luck, Hinata-san."

Tenten tried looking to her left, past Kiba, to see Taiyou. She gave him a wave, and trying to keep from yelling, she wished him good luck. But Taiyou just kept his eyes forward, and did not respond. She then looked down a little and sighed

Akumu tapped Tenten, who was right in front of him, on the shoulder. When Tenten looked in his direction he spoke, "Don't worry Bun-girl, he'll notice you. Though, I think Frilly apron girl of death is also trying for him. Of course, you are a much nicer person to be around, so chances are in your favor."

Tenten raised an eyebrow at the "Bun-girl" part and gave a questioning glance at the 'Frilly-apron-girl of death" part, but saw Akumu point to something behind them a few people, and one row over to her left. She turned around and saw Ino looking at Taiyou from behind.

Tenten merely blinked a few seconds before she got an annoyed look and turned around, "Ino."

Akumu was just about to speak to Tenten, when a set of doors across from them opened up. Everyone tensed up as Tsunade, Shizune, a number of Jounins and other examiners entered the room. Tsunade and Shizune casually walked up and stopped in front of the giant statue in front of the examinees.

"Congratulations examinees. You've all made it this far, which is quite an accomplishment," Tsunade said as she walked back and forth, scanning the faces of all the ninja standing before her, "But don't go thinking you can take it easy! Most of you have made it to this point before, and know that such thoughts are moronic!" As she said this, the last of the examiners walked in with smiles on their faces.

Every muscle in Akumu's body felt tight. Though Taiyou gave no outward sign, he was just as tense as everyone else. Akumu shuffled a bit as the thought, _Man, I have no idea what she just said, but she is one scary lady!_

Tsunade leaned over as Shizune whispered something into her ear. After a moment, she straightened back up, and looked back up over the examinees with narrowed eyes, "It appears, everyone, that we once again have too many examinees." To this the entire crowd began to murmur amongst themselves. "Therefore we will have preliminaries to knock some out," Then Tsunade looked to Akumu and then to Taiyou, "There are a few other circumstances however."

The look on everyone's face looked confused

Tsunade continued, "There are ambassadors here today, and we would like to make sure we keep them," Everyone started blinking at her and it was unnerving her, "But I will not force another village to lose examinees, so I will also ask two of our own ninjas to step down."

Everyone tilted their heads in confusion. Akumu raised his hand.

Tsunade looked at him, "Yes? What is it?"

Akumu's eyebrows where together in question, "What do you mean, Hokage-sama?"

"If you two don't participate, then we'll have to drop someone else as well to keep it even. So I'm not just about to ask another village to stand down as well. And seeing how the Konoha ninjas outnumber you outsiders almost 2 to 1, we can afford to lose some."

Many whispers were exchanged between the ninjas. Akumu broke away from his place and rushed over towards Taiyou, everyone's eyes following him as he zipped pass them. Taiyou also broke away and walked out of the group, Akumu following behind. The whispers started up again as Akumu and Taiyou were talking quietly to themselves away from the rest of them. A few moments later and they both stopped talking, and made their way back to their respective spots. Akumu then spoke up again, "We've talked it over, and we have come to a decision," he paused, but only for the dramatic effect, "We will continue on as was planned. That way we can enjoy the fun, and no one will have to miss out!"

Tsunade raised her eyebrows at this, "Are you sure? From what I understand, your reco-."

She couldn't, finish as Taiyou interrupted her, "Please understand Hokage-sama, we would not have agreed to come if we didn't think we could handle a few battles. Also, our villages wouldn't have sent us if THEY didn't think we could handle a few battles either."

Tsunade just sighed, "I suppose I cannot change your mind, but I would really prefer if you didn't," She looked up at him half seriously and half with a smirk.

Taiyou knew this might happen. Being the ambassadors in the village they have certain rights, that much was true, but the leader of the village they are visiting has the right to do whatever they feel is necessary to ensure the safety of the ambassadors. Taiyou narrowed his eyes and Akumu started to slouch down a bit trying to hide from everyone, knowing what Taiyou was going to do.

Taiyou puffed out his chest, "I don't know why you are so adamant, **Obaa-chan,** but our villages sent us for a reason. WE would be in trouble for not fully participating, AND it would make it seem that the Leaf cannot trust us, battle wise."

Everyone gasped loudly at the "Obaa-chan" comment, and those near Taiyou began to inch away from him. Tsunade's eyes widen, and then narrowed as she looked at him dangerously, "Insults will not assist you in anything you will do here in this village, boy."

Taiyou raised an eyebrow, "You ARE around fifty-six or so, are you not? Therefore it is not an insult, but a fact. My family is full of medic-nins who utilize their talents much like you do, they may not be as powerful as you, but I had plenty of older relatives who looked to be in their twenties. Your illusion does not fool me, just like how your attempts at manipulating political rules and conducts do not fool me. Remember, we are NOT the full delegates; we are also here for the exam. Therefore, the high level protection policy that most villages, which include yours since I have read said policy, does NOT apply to us."

Everyone started to look back and forth between the two people. A worried look crossed Akumu's face. He looked around for an escape route, but none was open. He pointed over to Taiyou's direction and yelled, "I revoke any affiliation with that person over there!"

Tsunade was very close to blowing her top, but Shizune placed a hand on her shoulder, asking her to calm down. Akumu could see in her face that the urge to smash something into oblivion was a hard urge to fight, but she didn't lose her cool. He figured the reason she didn't smash Taiyou was because it might not be the best idea to destroy the person whom is a representative of another village.

With a growl, Tsunade tried not to give into her anger, "Fine! From this point forward, you are no longer viewed as a delegate of any sort. All privileges and all other things connected as being ambassador are no longer anything for you to worry about. Until the negotiation meetings, you are just another ordinary ninja."

Taiyou bowed, "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

All Akumu did was sigh with disappointment.

Tsunade started up again, "But don't think you're going to get away with how you've acted! Now that you're not important people, I'm not restricted from punishing you! But, I'll deal with you afterwards!" She brushed a few loose strands of hair from her face, and turned her attention from Taiyou to everyone else, "We will now begin the matches. Most of you should be aware of how this works. We randomly draw two names," She pointed up to a box up on the wall. Lights flashed across it, and then the words 'Second Test' flashed up on two screens, "Whoever's name shows up will fight, and the winner goes to the final exam. We clear?"

All the examinees nodded their heads. Tsunade then, without a word, turned around and walked towards the statue on the far end of the room. Another ninja walked up and stood where Tsunade had a few moments before. He looked down at the clipboard he was holding, and then looked back up at the examinees.

"We will now begin. The first two to fight are-," He looked up at the box on the wall. The words 'Second Test' were gone, and now both screens flashed words, at a very fast pace.

Akumu thought he understood what was going on. One name will appear on one screen, and another one on the other. The two people who matched those names would fight. He closed his eyes and a sad look came to his face,_ I hope what I heard before wasn't the truth. I bet Tsunade is just as bad as Hono'o._

Then the flashing stopped, and the ninja with the clipboard spoke up again, "Tegaki Manuke and Honshitsu Akumu. Everyone else, please remove yourself from the floor."

Akumu, with his jaw hanging wide open, stood unmoving from his spot while everyone else around him made their way to the ledges, _NO! I don't want to go first! _ Hinata wished him good luck, but he didn't hear it. He soon snapped out of his daze, and as he walked towards the ninja who called out the names, he noticed someone else standing next to him. It was his opponent.

The name "Tegaki Manuke" belonged to one of the only few Sand ninjas that had made it this far. Akumu recognized this ninja from just a few moments ago, when his friend got shocked by Taiyou's sword. As Akumu stood next to the only other two people left standing on the battleground, Manuke gave him a cold harsh stare.

_I guess he's still a bit angry from before, _Akumu thought to himself.

The ninja with the clipboard spoke up loud enough for all to hear, "I will be the judge for this match, and all others that follow. The rules are basic: Anything goes. The battle will be over when one, or both, combatants are knocked out, unable to fight, or give up. Also, if necessary, I will call for the end of battle," He began to talk softer, directing his attention to the two examinees before him, "We clear on that?"

Both examinees nodded in acknowledgment.

The judge turned, and walked away from the examinees. Both of them turned from each other and walked away, giving them some starting room. As they turned back around, Manuke gave Akumu a cold sneer, "I'll get you back for what your friend did to mine," but Akumu did not respond, and this made Manuke angrier. He looked Akumu straight in the eyes in an intimidation attempt, but his unusual slitted, deep violet, eyes made him feel a bit uneasy.

The judge turned back around and saw that both were ready. He raised his hand, ready to give the signal. For a brief moment, the lights in the room flickered. Everyone looked up, but it only happened once, and before anyone really noticed, it was over. The judge remembered what was to be done, and when everyone was silent, he quickly brought his hand down, "Begin!"

"I hope you're ready for a trip to the emergency room, Black-nin!" Manuke yelled at Akumu as he started running at him.

Akumu only stood there. As Manuke started closing in, Akumu began to talk to himself, "'Black-nin'? Couldn't you have at least thought of a better nickname? Maybe, something like 'Shadow Warrior' or 'Dark Fighter' or even 'Devilishly Charming Ninja of Much Strength with a Fabulous Choice in Black Clothing'?"

Manuke did not take lightly to Akumu's joke, and when he saw the true sincerity in his eyes, it made him madder. "Don't mock me!" he yelled as he tossed several kunai at Akumu. Akumu did not notice the kunai and, and having failed to dodge them each one found a place in his chest. He fell flat on his back. Somewhere in the spectators, someone let out a gasp.

Manuke rushed over to the bleeding Akumu. But as he neared, he saw that what was coming out of his chest was not blood, but a black gooey substance, that made his black outfit seem dull in comparison. As it spilled out onto the floor, it began to puddle. But it was not a puddle of black goo, but more like a spreading shadow.

Then suddenly, Akumu's entire form changed into that black goo, and it began to sink into the shadow puddle, enlarging it. Once the goo had totally become a figure-less shadow, it surrounded Manuke with amazing speed, like a turbo charged amoeba. The shadow pulsed in a ring around Manuke. The ring overlapped Manuke's shadow, and slowly the ring began to go merge with it. The ring was now gone, and Manuke's shadow was much blacker than it should be.

Akumu's voice was heard, but he was nowhere to be seen, "Kuroi Mane no Jutsu!" The shadow began to pulse and bubble as something started to come up from the blackness. A human figure, skin blacker than the night sky, surged its way up out of the shadow; its head was bowed down, hiding its face.

Manuke wasted no time. He pulled out another kunai and slashed out at this figure. Following his movements exactly, a long bladed kunai came out of this dark figures palm, and as it grasped the handle, it parried Manuke's attack. With Manuke's attack stopped, the figure slowly lifted its head. The vicious grin of Manuke's own face looking back at him caused his stomach to turn. The pure white, pupil-less eyes stared right back at him.

The black Manuke spoke to the real Manuke, its voice a harsh rasp, "What's wrong? See anything familiar?"

Manuke jumped back away from this dark copy, "You're good, but I'll not fall for such a trick! Now try this on for size," He started a short link of seals ending in a Ram seal, "Mashingan no Jutsu". Manuke's arms began to glow a faint yellow, then with lightning speed, he started rapidly throwing kunai and shuriken at his dark copy.

All the while, as Manuke performed his technique, the black Manuke followed his every move to the "T". The dark one gave a grin, and with the same impressive lightning speed, it began rapid fire of kunai and shuriken at the real Manuke.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

As everyone up on the ledge was watching, Sakura asked a question out loud, "I don't understand, how could he copy the sand-nin's moves like that? I thought only the Sharingan was capable of such a feat."

She then looked at Taiyou expecting him to answer her, but when he showed no signs of answering she got red in the face with anger, _How DARE he ignore me!_ Inner Sakura yelled. However, before she could say something, Kiba tapped Taiyou on the shoulder, "Hey, how the hell is he doing that without something like the Sharingan?"

Taiyou turned back to the fight, chuckling. Kiba was growling and was about to explode when Taiyou spoke, "Don't be so surprised. The abilities of the Sharingan are not for the Sharingan alone."

Sasuke, though normally would defend his clans ability, did not comment as he also wished to know as he saw Taiyou continue to speak,

Taiyou continued, "If you would break down the abilities of almost any doujutsu that has multiple abilities, you will see that they can be used by other people. For instance, Konoha's Nara clan technique, 'Kagemane', makes one person copy the user. Now in Akumu's case, take that and reverse it. That being said, he isn't copying the move itself, just the movements of his opponent."

Tenten blinked for a second, "Wait, how do you-."

She could not finish as Taiyou put a finger to her lips, "I know a lot about Konoha, its standard for any Ninja village to spy on or just study about other Ninja villages,"

Some of the group gasped at that which caused Sasuke to snort, "I don't know why you are all so shocked. It is actually pretty common of ninja villages to do such, I'm sure even our own shinobi spy on others, and may even spy on its own inhabitants. Shinobi are shinobis, after all."

Kurenai, who was standing farther back, turned to Taiyou who took his finger off a blushing Tenten's lips, who to Ino's annoyance, smiled at him. Kurenai tilted her head as she regarded him and asked, "How much about our village do you know?"

Taiyou snorts to everyone's surprise, "Enough to know your villagers are stupid. So stupid, in fact, that they don't know a hero when they see one."

Kurenai's and the other older shinobis eyes widened, but before anyone can say anything Taiyou turned back to the fight with his arms crossed, somehow telling everyone he was done talking.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Clangs rang out as Manuke's and his black Impersonation's rapid projectiles each deflected the others. All the kunai and shuriken they were tossing had started to form little mounds, as they began to pile up.

_How can he deflect every single one!? It's like he's doing the same exact move!_ Manuke thought to himself. His arms started to burn, for he had been using his move for quite a few moments. _If my arms don't fail me first, then I'll eventually run out of projectiles. I have to think of something else._

The yellow glow around Manuke's arms began to fade, as the speed of which they moved began to slow down. And in total sync, the dark Manuke began to do the same. When at last they both stopped throwing their daggers and such, they both leaned over, as Manuke began to pant heavily. His arms tingled with the burn, and they were numb feeling.

_Argh! It's hard to move my arms. Maybe that technique wasn't the best of ideas. Look at him! _Manuke looked up to see his dark reflection, which did the same to him. As hard as he himself was panting, the dark one was not, but only mimicking the movement of his body._ As effective as that move was, the downside is it expends lots of Chakra, and puts massive strain on the arms. Not exactly the best of ideas for a beginning attack, especially if they happen to dodge or deflect them all. _Some feeling was coming back to his arms, as he got some of his breath back. _What to do?_

He stood up straight, and so did the dark one. Though he was pretty much vulnerable those last few seconds, the dark one made no move against him, but only mimicked his movements. Manuke wiped his brow, and so did the black copy. _So he IS just mimicking me! What a dirty trick! Everything I've done, he does too-_ And then it hit him. _ No! Not everything! When I did the Mashingan no Jutsu, he didn't mimic the move, just the physical motions. Like a shadow, whatever I do, it does, but chakra gives off no shadow._

That horrible raspy voice called out to Manuke, "Given up have we?"

Manuke let out a chuckle, "I've seen through your tricks! Now I can finally finish this!" Once again Manuke went into a chain of seals, ending with a Tiger seal as he called out, "Katon: Moeru Enko Yari no Jutsu!" As he drew in lots of air into his lungs, he placed his fingertips to both sides of his mouth. Then, he blew out the air hard as he fanned his hands away from his mouth out to the left side of his dark copy. Erupting from his mouth, a large streak of flame shot out in a horizontal arc towards the dark one.

All the while, dark Manuke followed in suit with the real Manuke, mimicking each word and movement. At the moment where the fire would have sprung forth, it did not. In its place was a black, flame like mass coming out of the dark ones mouth, exactly mimicking Manuke's arcing flame.

As the two flames passed by each other, homing in on their target, neither moved. _ How is that possible!? _Manuke thought to himself, _I guess he can copy the techniques as well as physical movements. This is my strongest move, so if I don't move, he'll get it dead on, but so will I, and I can't take a hit like this!_

The flames were nearly upon their targets. Though Manuke tried hard to resist, he couldn't flight the urge, and he jumped out of the way, causing the dark one to do the same. Both flames roared as they both narrowly missed their targets. Manuke's attack roared towards the wall behind his dark reflection and hit the wall, flames fizzling out at impact. As Manuke dodged the attack, the black flames roared right towards the judge that had just happened to be standing behind Manuke. He was ready to cancel out the attack as it hit him, but all it did was pas right though him, and fizzled out of existence at the same time Manuke's attack did..

As the two fell to the ground during the dodge, Akumu came busting out of the dark Manuke's chest, causing it to splatter back into the goo all over the floor, his long kunai with the wire attached to it spinning in his hand. He sent it flying, and it wrapped around Manuke's waist before he hit the ground.

With a most forceful tug, Manuke was sent flying towards Akumu who let out a shout, "My Karasuhaji has got you! Now, come get some!" Akumu reared back his armored fist, and sent Manuke a fierce punch as he got close enough. Unfortunately, Akumu missed his punch, and Manuke went flying over Akumu's head, as he headed for the charred spot on the wall.

With a loud crack, Manuke slammed into the wall. He stayed stuck to it for a few seconds, and then he fell to the ground with a thud. Akumu let out a groan knowing he missed his shot, as he retracted the kunai.

The judge walked over to Manuke's unconscious body. He looked over him, and with a few pokes, the judge raised his hand and declared that the battle was over. There was some cheering, but mostly there were whispers. Akumu placed his Karasuhaji back at his hip and walked up the stairs to the ledge where his group was, all the while eyes followed him.

"Well that was fun at least," Akumu said to Taiyou as he walked up to him.

Taiyou placed an arm over Akumu's shoulders, and brought him into whispering distance, "Well, I'm glad you had fun, but don't you remember something very important?"

Akumu looked up in thought. After a few moments he looked at Taiyou, "Um, I don't think I've forgotten anything important."

"Maybe it's something you should have done? Or maybe, NOT have done?"

"Ah!" Akumu began to laugh loudly to himself. He quieted down back to a whisper, "Heh, guess I forgot to tone it down a bit, didn't I?"

Taiyou's head drooped as he let out a sigh. But soon both felt a feeling most prominent, the feeling of eyes looking at them. Everyone on their side was looking at them, and everyone on the other side was watching the medics take away Manuke.

In an attempt to downplay his actions, Akumu spoke up loud enough for all to hear, pretending to talk to Taiyou only, "Yeah, I know. Using your ultimate technique this early was a bad idea. "

Taiyou was actually surprised on how well Akumu was able to act like a dummy. Of course, he wasn't sure if he was really acting or not. Akumu often walked that fine line between cunning and stupid, and Taiyou was never really able to tell between the two. Taiyou just shook his head and winced as he felt a pain in his side. He rubbed his side a little and walked back to the group. No one really noticing the fact he was rubbing his side, as he made it look casual, but Akumu saw the wincing and hummed to himself as he was thinking.

While doing this, he was walking behind Taiyou but before he could think more his mind suddenly went blank except for the name and face of Hinata, as said person smiled at him and said, "Good match Akumu-san." Akumu grinned widely and scratched the back of his head with a wide grin as he bowed his thanks and walked a little happier to Taiyou, ignoring Kiba's all too obvious glare in his direction.

"Alright now we will look at our next Chuunin hopefuls," As he said this, the screen started to flash again as it started to go through the names. After three seconds it stopped and everyone made a sound at the names. Some gasped, some snickered, some cursed, some gave relieved sighs, and others just gave a cocky "Heh" when Uchiha Sasuke's and Seishin Taiyou's name appeared on the screen.

Taiyou cocked his head to the side, "One-Two, huh?" he said referring to Akumu and himself being the first two to start, and right after one another.

_You just don't know how true that seems to be_, Akumu thought.

Sakura smirked in Taiyou's direction, "You might as well give up. Sasuke-kun is a genius shinobi, and he is very powerful."

Taiyou narrowed his eyes at the girl, "And since your SUCH a good skill detector you must know that making me angry with you is not a good thing. Just because you're a medic-nin who can increase her strength does NOT mean you have the right to speak to me as if I am an inferior."

Sakura bristled and nearly shouted, she was close to it anyway, "How DARE you? I've trained with Tsunade of the Sannin! And I am certainly more-."

Taiyou interrupted her, "A sign of weakness is using the names of others to intimidate your enemies. Plus, physical strength means nothing. You are probably ten times stronger, and can lift things thirty times heavier than the Uchiha or your own sensei, but they would have a wider range of skills which makes you still the weaker."

Sakura was about to bash him when Sasuke stopped her, "Enough, _I_ will be the one to beat him," With that said Sasuke jumped off the rail to the floor. Taiyou now forgotten, Sakura was now gazing down at Sasuke marveling at how cool he was.

Taiyou shook his head and turned to Tenten and handed her his swords, "Please hold on to these for me." Tenten smiled with a tinge of pink on her cheeks as Ino bristled behind her. Taiyou then jumped down to the floor and walked to the center to stand in front of Sasuke a few feet away.

Sakura humphed, and muttered, "Trying to act cool."

Taiyou then took a stance in front of Sasuke and then grimaced as he clutched his side this time visible to everyone. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "You are injured. Perhaps you should drop out. I can always fight you, after I make chuunin."

Taiyou smirked under his mask, "Sorry, but you will not be making chuunin this year."

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Akumu's eyebrows furrowed together and he turned to Hinata and Neji who were both looking down at the arena, "Can either of you use your Byakugan to check Taiyou's body condition?"

Hinata and Neji weren't quite sure why he asked, but they both saw the seriousness in Akumu's eyes. They nodded and both activated their blood-limit to take a look. After a second Hinata gasped and Neji's eyes widen slightly.

"His body is severely bruised all over, and appears to have severe burns on his back as well as a couple broken bones," Neji informed Akumu.

Akumu corrected him, "Fractured. Knowing him, he broke his bones back into place so he could still use them." Behind him, Tenten and Ino, as well as a few others, had concerned looks on their faces. Akumu sighed, "His choice, I guess. I will just have to help him after the match, win or lose." _Though I seriously doubt he will lose, _he thought to himself.

"Sasuke-kun will surely win!" Sakura's voice cried out in cheer.

_Annoying fan girls,_ Was the thought of Akumu, Taiyou, and Sasuke.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Taiyou stood up straight, ignoring the pain and cracked his neck as he then spun on his feet, pivoting with one foot and sliding the heel of his other foot creating light sparks as he fell into a fighting stance. Sasuke just furrowed his eyebrows at him as he took it in. Taiyou was somewhat hopping on each foot as his hands were near his face, you would think he was boxing if not for his feet being more spread apart.

**(A/N: -G- If you want to see this fighting stance, you should play Soul Calibur III, and look at whomever is using "Grieve Edge", seeing as this is the closest thing I could think of.)**

"This isn't the best form of taijutsu I can use, but I'm sure you will show me that you are worthy enough of my switching styles. Eh?"

"HEY, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU-," was heard on the ledge, before it was cut off.

Both Sasuke and Taiyou look up to see Akumu with his hand over Sakura's mouth to keep her from speaking more. A second later they looked back at each other.

Sasuke smirked, "Ignore her. I understand your wish to test your opponent before showing more skills. Don't want to do everything unnecessary, eh?"

Even though he was wearing a mask over his mouth, he could tell that Taiyou was grinning, as Taiyou spoke up, "I see we think alike then."

Sasuke "humphed" and settled into Lee's style since he'd learned how to use it.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

"This isn't the best form of taijutsu I can use, but I'm sure you will show me that you are worthy enough of my switching styles. Eh?" Taiyou said to Sasuke, down in the arena area.

Sakura, at hearing this, automatically began yelling, "HEY! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU-," but she was cut off, as Akumu slapped a hand over her mouth.

Akumu, glowering at her, spoke in a low voice, "Do NOT interrupt them. They are trying to test each other, and they can't do that if you are yelling. Also, Uchiha can talk for himself," He moved his hand and walked away.

Sakura was going to speak when she heard Sasuke speak, "Ignore her. I understand your wish to test your opponent before showing more skills. Don't want to do everything unnecessary. Eh?" he said this while smirking.

Sakura lowered her head slightly, as Kakashi patted her head in slight sympathy and slight gratitude.

Then at the sight of Sasuke dropping into a stance, Lee's eye twitched as he looked down sadly.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Taiyou grinned again as Sasuke smirked and the examiner began the match, "Begin."

Immediately Sasuke ran towards Taiyou.

Taiyou, though, immediately brought a leg all the way up. Sasuke, not understanding, halted his frontal assault. Then, there was a loud yell, "BOOM", as Taiyou brought his leg down hard. Upon impact, the ground cracked and pieces of it flew up and hit Sasuke in the face, sending him three yards back. He got back up and looked at Taiyou, seeing a moderately sized crater around his foot.

_Hah! I taught him that one!_ Akumu thought to himself.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Tenten tilted her head, "How did he do that?"

With a smirk, Akumu turned to her with a grin, "You're about to find out."Everyone just stared at him, and he stared back.

"What?" Tenten asked.

Ino then smashed the top of his head, "Stop doing that and just be quiet unless you're giving answers,"

Akumu then looked down and rubbed his head muttering, "You didn't have to hit me, Frilly-apron-girl-of-death," To which he got another punch to the head.

Ino started to yell at him again, "What IS with you two? Every time you two fight, there is one more surprise for us to see. There is never anything constant about you guys!"

Akumu nervously chuckled, but before he could respond Sakura began to yell at him as well, "No simple ninja would be able to pull off such a move as you did!"

Akumu sat down and assumed a deep thinking position. Seconds later, he jumped up and smiled at the both of them, "It's all very simple. Our stars! They are most prominent in the sky, as of right now! That is surely what is giving us power!"

Both girls yelled, "Don't give us that crap!"

As Akumu began to laugh at their anger, Kurenai spoke to him, "Dark-nin, your friend mentioned that he knows much about Konoha. What do you know?"

Akumu immediately stopped laughing. His violet eyes filled with a glare of anger, and his voice lost its bright tone, "We HAVE names! Akumu Honshitsu and Taiyou Seishin! And what we know is that most of the villagers are stupid."

Kurenai felt uneasy with his look and words, "That's exactly what your friend, Taiyou, said."

"And for his, and Shidosha's sake, that's all I'll say," Akumu turned from them, and began to watch the fight.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Sasuke stood up, and looked around at the debris then looked at him, "How?"

If one would look, they would see that Tsunade was also intrigued.

Taiyou gave an eye smile, "Well, when you have a family that is mostly comprised of medic-nin, you learn a few things. The taijutsu style that I'm currently using is the medic-nin style of my village."

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly as he recalled the increased strength of the medic-nin he knew. Then he smirked, "But you don't seem to specialize in that field, so you aren't as good as our Hokage, and her apprentice, at physical strength."

Taiyou grinned under his mask, "Ah, good deduction. But just because I'm not proficient, doesn't mean it's not effective." Taiyou then punched the ground sending a controlled shockwave towards Sasuke.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and jumped to the side. He looked at Taiyou with a questioning expression, "And what did that do?"

Taiyou smirked and casually tossed an ordinary shuriken on the floor in the direction of the shock wave. As it hit, the floor crumbled and caved in about 4 inches all the way, and even passed where Sasuke was previously standing, "Medic-nin are capable of even stranger, yet more powerful and interesting, abilities."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow again, _He doesn't seem to want to explain himself. Perhaps he is testing Konoha's ability to grasp concepts?_ Sasuke shook his head.

Taiyou, now fed up with waiting, disappeared from view. Sasuke looked surprised and turned around quickly drawing a kunai to block Taiyou's vertical swipe. With a clang and a couple of sparks, Sasuke was then face to face-mask with the light-nin.

Sasuke leaned back and shot his foot out to kick him in the stomach. The hit sent Taiyou a few feet into a wall. With an "oof", Taiyou hit the wall but kept his balance. Sasuke chuckled, "Looks like you have a while to go."

Taiyou smirked as he got up, "As do you," He started walking toward him and lowered his voice since Sasuke could hear him, "since you obviously are not as powerful as your brother."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he growled, "What the hell do you know?"

Taiyou chuckled darkly, "That you're a weakling. You will never be as powerful as him. You are merely an above average shinobi, not a genius like him."

Sasuke lunged at him with his Sharingan activated. Sasuke slammed Taiyou in the chest with punch. As Taiyou flew off, Sasuke performed some hand seals ending with the Tiger seal and let off a stream of fire that further launched Taiyou into the far wall. As Taiyou hit the wall, the fire, which had no place to go, continued to pour into him and up on the walls. Sasuke stopped, and stared at his handy-work, with Sharingan blazing. As the fires died down, Taiyou's charred remains could be seen. A few gasps were heard from the spectator ledges, but then the body exploded in blue swirling chakra as the air was moved about.

"What the-," Sasuke said in surprise.

"Kaze-bunshin. Very useful," Taiyou said as Sasuke turned around and glared at him. Taiyou grinned, but then cringed, "But I think your punch hurt something," Taiyou sighed and started to gather chakra as he started a chain of seals. Then he noticed Sasuke smirking and following his seals. He ended in the Ram seal.

Akumu called out, "Be careful, Tai! You know what that could do to you!"

Taiyou nodded and smirked at Sasuke, "Sorry Uchiha, but you can't copy this."

Sasuke smirked, "I'm afraid anything with hand seals I can copy."

Taiyou smirked as did Sasuke and they both cried out, "Kagayaku Medama!" Sasuke looked confused after he said that, and looked around and then back at Taiyou, to see his that his eyes were no longer visible. Instead, seemingly in their place, was a strange dim glowing light. To anyone, they would have seen a bright light, imitating from his Taiyou's eyes, but to the eyes of the Sharingan, his body's figure was enveloped in a veil of light, thus ceasing the Sharingan's ability to view Taiyou's body.

Sasuke looked nervous. _How is this possible!? The only thing I see is chakra in the shape of his body._

"Let's look at basic science, shall we?" Taiyou blinked, causing the light to flicker, "The human eyes require certain environmental stimulus in order to work. That being: light. Light bounces off of other objects, either being reflected or absorbed by the objects color, and then enters the eye for the brain to process. My Blood Limit allows me to see light flow, and, since chakra can give off light, I can view chakra as well," The pain in his side came back, causing him to stop talking for a moment.

Sasuke got the distinct impression that Taiyou was smirking at him under that mask.

Taiyou continued, "I can't see inside the body mind you. However, I can view the wisps of chakra that are constantly expelled by your body."

He started doing more seals, and as Sasuke tried to copy them. Only he found he couldn't even see what seals he was doing as there was too much "light" obstructing his vision.

"Oh, I forgot to mention something," Taiyou continued, "Some doujutsus can negate some abilities of others. Like my doujutsu and your doujutsu's copying ability. Even the famous Hyuga Byakugan's ability to view inner chakra coils has a weakness, with this skill of mine."

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Neji spoke incredulously, "Is that even possible?"

Akumu turned to him, "Why ask when you can find out for yourself?"

Akumu couldn't help but smirk as Neji activated his Byakugan, and saw that he couldn't view his coils.

Akumu started again, "You should still be able to see his chakra, just not the coils themselves."

Neji nodded at that.

"Does it seem unfair?" Akumu asked Neji, "In a way, it is. But, hiding from such visual jutsus is its only purpose. Think of it as anti-X-ray vision." he chuckled, "So as long as you're not dependent on tricks like that, then Tai's move is nothing more than a fancy flashlight." As Neji and Hinata were nodding, Akumu added, "Well, in actuality, chakra gives off a kind of light itself, though it can't be seen normally. But to _Taiyou_, those eyes can scoop up light, and since chakra gives off light, he can view chakra as well."

"I've never heard of such a bloodline." commented a sand shinobi, who was close by.

"You wouldn't." Akumu said waving his hand in dismissal.

Hinata was going to ask him a question, until Akumu cut her off, "So many questions are boring. Let's continue to watch the fight, eh?"

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Sasuke, for lack of a better and more accurate word, was royally pissed. Not only is his prized ability useless, but he couldn't copy Taiyou's jutsus. Sasuke gritted his teeth and charged at the figure of "light", pulling out a kunai and a fuuma shuriken.

Taiyou was surprised at this tactic, and he immediately started hopping backwards. The Uchiha threw his kunai and fuuma shuriken in two different directions, neither not even aiming towards Taiyou. Taiyou stopped his hopping and pulled out a kunai, and had a look in his eyes that told you he had a smirk under his mask.

Sasuke smirked himself and yanked back on hidden wires attached to the weapons. Taiyou's smirk never left even as the weapons were approaching. Taiyou crouched down and sprung up, as he performed a massive back flip, catching the weapons as they were about to cross each other. Taiyou landed, and he threw the projectiles back at Sasuke. As the shuriken and kunai closed in on him, Sasuke grunted and jumped out of the path of the missiles as he performed another shunshin, flickering out of sight, then appearing behind Taiyou.

Taiyou's eyes widened as he barely caught the movement, and turned to block the heel kick from behind. Sasuke then flickered again and appeared beside Taiyou, allowing him just enough time to block a second kick. _He's getting slower,_ Sasuke thought with a smirk, and sure enough, Taiyou was starting to have trouble keeping up.

After three flickers, Sasuke scored a hit to the side of Taiyou's face with a left punch. Directly following the hit, he flickered again and appeared under Taiyou. Then Sasuke kicked upward. Taiyou, in a last ditch effort to avoid more damage, broke a smoke bomb in his hand and performed a shunshin of his own the second it went off. The bomb had its desired effect, as Sasuke stopped his assault and jumped backwards quickly until the smoke cleared.

As the smoke cleared, Taiyou could be seen holding his side in a grimace.

"Do you need to stop?" a loud voice asked. Sasuke and Taiyou turned to Tsunade who had a raised eyebrow, "Would be a shame if something happened to you."

Taiyou shook his head, "No, I will be fine Hokage-sama."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at her address, and just noted it as he got what he wanted and no longer had to insult her. _The little brat_, she thought.

Sasuke smirked, "Perhaps you should listen."

Taiyou stood straight ignoring the pain, "I will still beat you regardless," he stated but his voice was shaky.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

"Uh-oh," Akumu said as he was watching.

"Why 'uh-oh'?" Ino asked from where she was watching.

"Taiyou's injuries are starting to get to him."

"Getting to him?" Kurenai asked a bit concerned.

Akumu nodded, "It's a slight mental problem that occurs sometimes in our villages. Basically, it's a type of 'Battle-hype'," Akumu rested his brow in his hand, "How it effects us vary from person to person, but what causes the problems is almost always the same. The more damaged one is, the more one loses it. I don't have such problems, so I don't know much more than the basic stuff."

Ino started to look worried, and Tenten turned to Akumu, looking him straight in his eyes as he lifted his head up to meet her gaze, "Then why did you let him go out there with him in the condition he is in?"

Akumu sighed, "He is so strong willed, so I didn't worry too much. But I should have when Uchiha's name came up."

Tenten looked down at Taiyou, "Will he be ok?"

Akumu didn't answer.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

"I must apologize, Tenten-san," The one mentioned blinked as she was addressed. "I allowed you to hold my swords for this fight because I didn't want them dirtied and because I took this from you," Taiyou answered and pulled out a scroll.

Tenten gasped, "That's one of my scrolls!"

Taiyou smirked as he bit his thumb and dragged it along the scroll. Then he proceeded to wave it around is body in an exaggerated fashion until he stopped right in front of him horizontally, "Hana Saku Kunai no jutsu!" (Blossoming Kunai Flower technique) As soon as he said those words a large wave of kunai erupted from the scroll and flew at Sasuke.

Sasuke, being Sasuke, dodged them by ducking around various kunai, until Taiyou pulled back the scroll and wires that were secretly connected to the kunai, came around and trapped him in the wire web. Sasuke noticed his hands were still free, and he started doing hand seals. When he smirked and looked up, he saw Taiyou right in front of him completing a final hand-seal. Taiyou covered the Uchiha's eyes with the flat of his palms, while at the same time Sasuke let off his jutsu.

Sasuke's body was suddenly surrounded by fire and started to travel along the wires. That in itself was pretty harmless to Taiyou, but the fact that he was so close to Sasuke, was not. The fire engulfed Taiyou, and as the wires melted and broke, Sasuke kicked Taiyou in the stomach sending him into a wall. Surprisingly enough, Taiyou didn't scream once during that entire ordeal. Sasuke smirked as he looked towards the wall, until he noticed that all he saw was white. Sasuke's eyes widened and started to look around frantically.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Akumu started to chuckle, '"The old 'Shinsei Suru no Jutsu', Taiyou's patented Genjutsu."

Ino and Tenten looked at him incredulously while Kurenai looked at him with interest, "Patented?"

Akumu nodded, "Back at the academy where we went, one of our assignments was to come up with a theory for a new genjutsu. Taiyou, being one to manipulate light, created that one to cause the victims eyes to take in its full limit of light. This blinds the person but doesn't fry the retinas, causing temporary blindness. It's sort of like looking into the sun, but minus the permanent damage. Unfortunately, it's not exactly practical in an actual fight, seeing as you have to be close to the person; however it's good for pre-emptive surprise attacks, and stealth maneuvers."

Ino was about to comment on how neat that was until Akumu cut her off, as he hopped up on the railing, "But he sure is getting quite the beating out there."

As they all looked down their eyes widened, as they saw what he meant.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Taiyou stood up from where he had fallen, but kept his head down as he started to murmur. Sasuke stopped for a second as he thought he heard something, "Enemy . . .," Taiyou said softly, "Where is . . . my enemy?"

Sasuke went into his battle stance though he couldn't see, _how can I fight him if I can't see a thing?_

"My . . . ENEMY!" Taiyou lifted his head. His eyes were back to normal, except for the red veins, and the crazy look within them, "Enemy!" He repeated, and he then vanished from sight, reappearing behind Sasuke, delivering to him an elbow to the back of the head.

Sasuke, after feeling the blow, twisted in an attempt to retaliate, but Taiyou appeared to his side and kneed him in the side of the face. Unable to see, Sasuke could not even defend as blow after blow was given to his head. He noticed he blows hurt, but didn't seem damaging. Taiyou's punches started coming faster and faster, causing Sasuke to become unbalanced and dizzy. With a blow to the back of the head, the blurry white that covered Sasuke's vision was being consumed by a growing darkness. He hit the ground, passed out.

**(A/N: -G- Now, to be honest, I hate how everyone makes their character all-powerful. However, you must remember that anything is possible in the ninja world, so the possibility of trickery being used to beat Sasuke [like now] is highly probable, so don't think my character just won because he is all-powerful.)**

Taiyou blinked out of sight once again, as the judge ran over to check on Sasuke. After checking him over, the judge yelled, "Match is over! Seishin is the victor!" The room was totally quiet.

The judge was about to turn to the medic-nins and tell them to get Sasuke, when he saw Taiyou, at the farthest end of the room. His breathing was fast and heavy, "End . . . must end . . .," then charged forward.

Akumu, on the rail, muttered "Shit," and fell forward on the rail doing a small chain of hand seals, and as soon as his body fell at an angle pointing towards Sasuke's body, he pushed off the railing, flying towards Taiyou's target.

When the judge noticed Taiyou charging, he yelled again, "Seishin it's over!" as Taiyou drew out a kunai.

Mere moments before Taiyou made it to Sasuke, Akumu slammed into Taiyou. As they tumbled, Akumu reached around his arms to restrain him. However, Taiyou's legs were still moving, so after a second of tumbling, Taiyou was back on his feet running forward dragging Akumu on his back. As soon as Akumu realized this, he planted his feet on the floor, in an attempt to put the brakes on Taiyou. Though all this did was caused them to skid for a few seconds, until Akumu placed his hand over his eyes.

"Sleep," Akumu muttered in Taiyou's ear, and almost instantly, Taiyou relaxed and passed out.

There was total silence in the entire chamber. Akumu laid Taiyou down on his back then turned to see everyone staring at him. Of course he scratched the back of his head. The judge didn't waste time in calling the medics. As soon as the medics got both Taiyou and Sasuke on the stretchers, they were already heading to the infirmary.

As Akumu followed Taiyou, he turned and started walking backwards as he yelled, "Just hold on to those swords for a while, and return them later, Double-bun girl."

Tenten, though very concerned, still dead-panned at the nickname.

Then Akumu stopped at the door, "I hope your happy Tsunade-sama!" Tsunade raised an eyebrow, as everyone looked back and forth between them. He continued, "Seeing as how you rigged our matches to be one after the other, so your shinobi could see our techniques." After he said that he grinned.

Tsunade's eyes widened slightly, "And how do you know that, pray tell?"

Akumu grinned, "I'm smarter than I look! I figured it out."

_~Flashback~_

_While everyone was waiting for the rest of the teams to arrive, Akumu got thirsty and went into the hallway where he found a_ _soda machine_. _As he was putting in his money, he overheard some people talking down the hall._

"_This is quite odd." a male soft, male voice said, "Hokage-sama rigged the exam, so our shinobi can view the unknown nin's abilities Quite cleaver."_

"_Yes, very clever indeed," said another._

_~End Flashback_~

Akumu smirked as he was walking slowly away. _Ah well, what they don't know won't hurt them. Besides, I must look pretty damn cool right now._ As he thought this, and RIGHT before he got out the door, his belt loosened and his pants fell, showing to everyone his boxers with fox faces stamped all over them They even had the slitted eyes on them! _And so ends my moment of coolness_, he thought as he bent down, grabbed his pants, and walked out.

Though the room was silent to begin with, it was now an embarrassed silence and no longer a silence of amazement.

_**-Scenebreak-**_

Taiyou opened his eyes. The square pattern of the ceiling slowly came into focus. He was laying on his back on something quite soft, which he was sure was a bed. Memories of his last conscious moments of his battle with Sasuke returned to him. He ached quite a bit all over, and after noting the feeling of wrappings covering most of his body, and the smells in the air, Taiyou was sure he was in a hospital.

He tried to lift up his head to get a better view, but before he could get up enough, his head started feeling heavy and dizzy. He plopped his head back down, and just laid there. Then he noticed a deep, repeating sound close by. He slowly turned his head to left, his neck quite stiff.

Taiyou's face went deadpan as he saw what was making that sound. He saw Akumu, asleep and snoring away, in a chair next to the bed. Akumu had a half-empty bag of his special, fiery-hot chips in his lap, and many empty bags littering the floor. Taiyou felt embarrassed for Akumu.

Taiyou slowly raised his hand to his face. His mask was gone. He looked to the stand next to his bed, and saw his mask on the nightstand, next to a metal water container.

Movement caught his eye at the doorway on the far end of the room. Taiyou quickly looked over, and saw two faces peering in through a tiny window in the door. It was Ino and Tenten, trying to push each other out of the way of the window. Once they noticed Taiyou was looking at them, they stopped their pushing long enough to open the door and walk in. Both of them walked up next to the bed, as Hinata and Chouji walked in after them. Hinata walked up next to Akumu, and silently laughed at him as he slept. Chouji saw the bags of chips around him, and his memory of his first incident with that brand came to him, as he felt the burn again in his mind.

"Taiyou-san, how are you feeling?" Ino quietly asked him.

"It's hard to move at all, and my arms and legs feel like they are on fire," Taiyou replied, his voice no more than a whisper.

"Well that does make sense," Tenten said to him, "The doctors said there was a mass surge of chakra flowing to your arms and legs, causing a nearly-severe case of chakra poisoning. They really don't understand why this happened though."

"We do though, so don't worry about it," Akumu said, even though he didn't move from his sleeping position. This startled everyone, Hinata more so, who was the closest. He lifted his head up, and looked at Taiyou. "Well, so nice to see that you're awake!"

"How long was I out?" Taiyou asked Ino and Tenten.

"About four or so hours," Tenten responded to him.

Hinata looked down at Akumu, and then across to Taiyou, "You both missed all of the fights. They ended a few moments ago."

"Eh, nothing we could have done about it," Akumu said to himself out loud.

"You could have stayed behind and watched the rest of the fights. Our medics are more than capable of treating Taiyou-san," Tenten said in response.

Akumu grinned in response to her response, "It's not about the medics doing their job, it is more along the lines that Taiyou could have secrets he doesn't want to be exposed. Got to watch his back, ya know?"

Ino blinked at him for a few seconds before commenting, "You act like we are gonna gut and study you or something."

"With all due respect Ino-san, you should never completely trust any ninja village, unless your villages were allied for a long time before then. Even so, you still have to pay close attention to other villages," Taiyou said in a very sage-like voice, "By the way, how is Uchiha?"

"Sasuke? He is doing fine since he got his eyesight back. He had nearly no damage on him whatsoever. Regardless, you can only take so many hits to the head before you black out. His pride probably hurts though." Ino said, "Why do you ask?"

Taiyou shrugs, "Well I was hoping he was better, so I could TRULY spar with him. I didn't have the chance because I was injured."

"I'm sure he wasn't exactly one-hundred percent rested either," Akumu said to Taiyou as he opened another bag of chips. Almost instantly the smell of the chips started to fill the room, and it started to burn everyone's noses, besides Akumu's and Taiyou's.

With her hand covering her nose, Ino began to yell at Akumu, "Gah, what is that awful smell!?"

"These are my village's specialty 'Wildfire Chips'. They are loaded down with nearly every pepper known to man," Akumu got a big whiff of the smell coming from within the bag, and smiled as he exhaled, "Such a wonderful fragrance, that can only be brought about from making a chip with concentrated essence of heat on it," He noticed everyone, but Taiyou, was giving him a strange look, "Where are my manners!? Would you like some Frilly-Apron? Hinata-san? Chouji? Bun-Girl?"

As he called out their names, they feverishly shook their heads in refusal. The mere thought of the power of the heat of the chips made their mouths feel dry.

Akumu held the bag out towards Taiyou, "Want some, Tai? They're mild flavor."

_Mild!?With that strong smell? Akumu must have absolutely no taste at all, _Ino thought to herself.

Though his arms were still a bit stiff, Taiyou reached over and grabbed a few chips from the bag. He began to munch on them without the slightest bit of effect from the heat. Akumu himself had grabbed a handful and started to stuff his face. Everyone else in the room could almost feel the power of the chips, just by watching then eat them while not being affected.

Akumu looked into the bag and saw the last chip at the bottom. He almost reached in to get it, when he remembered a few days ago when he tried eating them before back before they had reached the tower.

_~Flashback~_

_Akumu had opened up a bag of chip like snacks he had brought from his village, he needed the food for the start his day. He and Taiyou shared it, and as Akumu reached in and pulled out the last chip, Chouji sprang out of his sleep and rushed over and grabbed it. With gusto in his eyes, he ate the chip. Unfortunately for him Akumu likes insanely spicy foods. Next thing they know, Chouji was dunking his head in the river and drank like mad. _

_~End Flashback_~

"Here Chouji, you can have the last one." Akumu said, trying to hide his smile. Akumu could see that Chouji was trying to fight the urge to eat it, but he knew what would happen, "Come on, it's not that hot, it's only mild, remember?"

Chouji slowly raised his hand, and reached out for the bag. He looked in it; it was indeed the last chip.

"If you don't want it, I'll just go ahead and eat it," Akumu tried to take back the bag, but Chouji raised the bag over his open mouth, as the last chip fell into it. After a few crunches, Chouji thought he had the fires of Hell eating away at the inside of his mouth.

Chouji started to panic. He looked around the room for something to drink. On the stand between Taiyou's bed and Akumu's chair was a metal pitcher on a nightstand, next to Taiyou's mask. He rushed over to it, knocking Akumu over in his chair. He drank the nearly full pitcher of water, and though it had cooled down the heat, there was still a significant burning sensation.

There was silence for a moment, and then, from the floor, Akumu began to chuckle. Then Tenten started to giggle, and Hinata and Ino followed. Soon the light laughter grew bigger and bigger and even Chouji began to laugh, regardless of the heat still in his mouth.

Akumu picked himself up off the floor, laughing loudly, and saw Taiyou smile as Akumu gave him a thumbs-up.

_**A/N**_

**-G-**: Hey everyone it's us again. Sorry for so long between updates, but college tends to make writing hard and far in between. But we are troopers, we WILL get them done. Naruto will come in shortly....in like a chap or so. As for miss Haruno? It isn't that I dislike her....just she is SOOOO obsessive when it comes to the uchiha that she would forget everything else. That will be a major thing that will be confronted. As for anything else....just read, and review please.

**-D-**: Phew! That took some time to do. As -G- said, please review, it helps us in our work. Again, if you think our translations of our moves, from English into Japanese, is bad or could use a tweak, let us know the correct way to say it and well be glad to change it.

_Translations:_

_Fenikkusuryuu_ (Dragon Phoenix)

_Fenrir _(Norse "Wolf-God", son of "Loki")

_Kuroi Mane no Jutsu_ (Black Imitation Technique)

_Mashingan no Jutsu _(Machine-gun Technique)

_Katon: Moeru Enko Yari no Jutsu_ (Fire Release: Flaming Arc Spear Technique)

_Karasuhaji_ (Nothing much, just a name fusing together the words for "Crow" and "Edge". If anything, it would come across as "CrowEdge")

_Kagayaku Medama_ (Glitter(ing) Eyeball)

_Hana Saku Kunai no Jutsu_ (Blossoming Kunai Flower technique)

_Shinsei Suru no Jutsu_ (Holy Rub Technique _or_ [The] Apply Technique)


	5. CHAPTER 4: Unfinished Business

CHAPTER 4: Unfinished Business

Nearly three full weeks had passed since the end of the preliminaries. All the participants had made good use of this time of rest, training or relaxing. Everyone had to be in top condition to be ready for the much more challenging matches in the last part of the Chuunin Exam. During that time, Taiyou had made a full recovery from his injuries during the Forest of Death, and Akumu was able to have a few nice quiet lunches with Hinata, away from all the annoying people he knew. The three weeks they had were good to them, but not for long.

It was near noontime on the first day of the week before the finals, and Akumu and Taiyou were standing in front of the Eastern Gate, the same gate they themselves had entered in just about five weeks prior, but neither looked like they were all that happy being there.

Akumu, signs of boredom and tiredness on his face, began to speak to Taiyou without looking away from the gate, "What time is it?"

Taiyou's eyes showed the same feeling that was on Akumu's face, and he replied back to him while not looking away from the gate, "Its eleven-forty-five."

Akumu let out a sigh, "She should be here soon."

Taiyou did not sigh, but his voice did give the same level of exasperation that a sigh would have had, "Yes, but you said that an hour ago, and again before that hour."

"Are you ready for her to come? Cause you know what it's going to be like."

Taiyou nodded, "Hell."

Another hour had passed, yet they did not move from that spot. They turned slightly as they heard laughing and conversations being conducted and saw the teams of genin from the exam. To be exact, it was Team Kurenai, Gai, and Asuma, genin and jounin alike walking towards them.

Ino looked up and zeroed in on Taiyou and reached into the sky and waved enthusiastically, "Taiyou-san! How are you today? I haven't seen you all-," then she paused as they got closer, "Are you guys alright? You look awful."

They all looked at them, well, Tenten and Ino were looking at Taiyou, but they were looking at them and noticed the tired expressions on their face.

"Yeah, we have been kinda waiting here for several HOURS. Be here soon my ASS!" Taiyou said tiredly, glaring at Akumu every time he emphasized a word.

Everyone, especially Ino and Tenten, were shocked at how unreserved Taiyou was today. Usually he was always respectful and polite, well except that time with Tsunade, but they just assumed he just had his reasons.

Kurenai asked the question that was on everyone's mind, "What's wrong? And why are you standing here?"

Taiyou sighed and once again uncharacteristically made a comment, "Well you have three choices; you can listen to a story, politely excuse yourself and walk away, or turn and run screaming in fear of the 'Great Storyteller'."

They were all looking at him as if he had grown another head, _He is acting weird._

Taiyou sighed and turned to Akumu, "They have no sense of humor."

Akumu sighed as well, "Yeah, I suppose, and I don't have the energy to do the story teller routine this time, so they wouldn't understand. But I'll tell them anyway. It all started yesterday, around this time . . ."

_**Flashback**_

_The bright noon sunlight lit up main room of Akumu and Taiyou's temporary home. They were not in the room at the time, as they both had gone and enjoyed themselves about town, collecting foodstuffs for their evening meal._

_The door to the hallway opened up and Akumu and Taiyou walked in, both carrying bags full of ingredients. Akumu was chattering away about the hot looking chicks around the town, while they put the groceries away. Taiyou really didn't care at all, so he didn't respond much. Akumu was laughing at something he had said, but Taiyou hadn't been paying attention, and didn't hear._

_Then, Akumu's laughter stopped, and that got Taiyou's attention. He looked over to where Akumu was, and saw he had just picked up a letter from upon the floor. He walked over to see what was on the letter as Akumu had begun to open it._

_They both stood there and read the letter, and almost at the same time a look of depression took over their faces. Their day had just gotten much worse._

_**End Flashback**_

"We stood there for a good few minutes and then prepared dinner and went to bed," Akumu said, "Then we got up this morning and came here to wait."

"And she STILL isn't here yet!" Taiyou whined slightly.

Now they were surprised by two things. One: to Ino and Tenten's surprise, Taiyou whined. Two: to Ino and Tenten's jealous annoyance, a _she_ was arriving. It was also at this moment that the gate started to open, and Taiyou rushed over and started to hide behind Kurenai.

"Ah, finally, she's here," Akumu said looking at the gate.

As everyone turned to the opening gate, they saw a figure walking towards them. As the figure got closer, a few of the present male species were starting to pay special attention to the figure as the female genin narrowed their eyes at the figure.

The figure in question was a girl about fifteen years old, with long black hair in two pigtails on the sides in the back. She was wearing a dark blue body suit with an open light black vest that seemed a little short as it only went down to the middle of her stomach. She had a slightly short skirt in the front-right and got longer as it got to the back-left, along with black leggings and sandals that were shorter than what most genin wear.

She looked very much like Akumu, like if this girl was indeed the female-version of Akumu. She looked up, and her eyes widened as she opened her arms and ran towards them.

Akumu grinned and slightly opened his arms, but grunted in surprise as she shoved her bags that instantly appeared out of nowhere into is open arms, and ran behind Kurenai and tackled Taiyou as she screamed, "Taiyou-KUUUUUN!"

Taiyou was knocked back slightly, but was able to stay up and patted her on the back, laughing nervously, "Hello Yume-chan."

Akumu, who had a twitch in his right eyebrow, walked up and grabbed the girl by the shirt and pulled her into a headlock, "What!? No love for your Bro!?" he said to the girl as he proceeded to give her a noogie.

"Hey, let me go!" she yelled at him as she started to punch Akumu in the stomach.

Akumu just laughed, "You're going to have to hit harder than that, Sis."

Yume growled in response and stomped on his left foot, and despite Akumu wearing a boot, she still managed to crush his toe.

'_SIS'!?AS IN 'SISTER'!? _The thought of there being another Akumu in the world made Ino's stomach turn a bit.

"YAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" with cries of pure agony, Akumu started to hop around on one foot clutching his poor toe, "Owie, owie, owie! That really hurt! Prepare for the-," Akumu then got the maniacal look on his face, "dreaded lump noogie!" He then grabbed her in headlock again and knocked on her head three times before giving her another noogie.

"OW! Hey Bro, stop," another lump noogie, and then, "OW! I SAID STOP, SO STOP OR I'LL TELL MOM!"

Akumu gave her one quick last noogie, for good measure, before he let her go.

"Now Akumu, you shouldn't be so mean to your sister," chastised Taiyou, "After all, she came all this way to see you."

"You mean to see YOU!" Akumu said, grinning cheekily.

"Aw, Taiyou-kun is defending me," somehow Yume had instantly appeared and glomped onto Taiyou's arm.

The other shinobi were just standing there watching this entire ordeal, with Tenten and Ino getting a strange twitch in their left eyebrow as Yume grabbed onto Taiyou again.

Taiyou himself groaned in frustration and in extreme annoyance, _if she wasn't good at doing her job, I would NOT allow this._ Taiyou gritted his teeth and just bared it.

The pain in Akumu's foot faded as he made his way next to Yume, and he spoke to everyone else, "This short, hyperactive mound of annoyance is my sister: Honshitsu Yume."

Suddenly Akumu started screaming again as Yume had stepped on his toe again, as she smiled and detached herself from Taiyou, and bowed with a smile, "Hello! It is a pleasure to meet all of you."

Ino and Tenten raised a skeptical eyebrow, while the others bowed and introduced themselves.

After the introductions were done, though Tenten and Ino were strangely hostile towards the new girl, they all decided to go and get to know each other, over Ino's vehement suggestion, during a meal.

Surprisingly, Gai and Lee had not said a word about youth, or spoken for that matter, for the entire day. When everyone got to the barbeque restaurant, courtesy of Chouji's suggestion, both of them kept looking anxiously at the clock. As the seconds past, both of them kept calm, despite the look in their eyes; the look of one whom is about to explode. Then when it reached twelve noon, they stood up abruptly, and Gai shouted, "YOSH, WE HAVE DONE IT, LEE!"

In response, Lee gave the good guy pose, "YES, GAI-SENSEI!"

Gai started to cry, "OUR YOUTHFULNESS PREVAILS, AS WE HAVE BEATEN MY RIVAL'S HIP NEW CHALLENGE AND HAVE NOT SPOKEN AT ALL THIS MORNING. IT IS NOW TIME TO LET OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHT!"

Lee starts to cry as well as he responds, "YES, GAI-SENSEI!"

After this flamboyantly scary dialogue they started hugging, as a sun started to set behind them.

The three outsiders blinked at the sunset that was indoors and thought, _Genjutsu?_ They started to form tiger seals and muttered "Kai" as they tried desperately to dispel it.

Finally the sun turned to small sparkles that floated just around Gai and Lee, and everyone tried there hardest to pretend that they didn't know the couple hugging, and just turned towards each other at the table.

Hinata turned to the newest arrival and asked, "So, Yume-san was it? What brings you to our village?"

The girl in question turned to her and smiled, "Yes, Hinata-san, but don't be so formal, please. And to answer your question, I'm here to see these two compete in the finals. But I am not the only one coming."

This interested Kurenai, who was sitting in front of her and in between the annoyed Tenten and Ino, "Who else is coming?"

Yume smiled, "My mother, the Kuraikage, is one of the ones coming."

Everyone then instantly looked at Akumu as Kiba asked the question on everyone's mind, "Your mother is your villages Kage?"

Akumu looked up from the tea that he was drinking, that had just been brought to them, "Uh, yeah? Why? Does that matter?"

They all face-faulted as Yume coughed to get their attention, "Megami-sama, Taiyou's mother and head of the Seishin clan, is also coming," everyone looked at him, though not as shocked, "And finally Hono'o-sama is coming."

Kurenai looked at her expectantly, "What?"

Asuma, sensing her confusion, clarified, "Who is this Hono'o person?"

Yume's eyes widened and nodded in understanding, and shifted uncomfortably in her seat, "She is the, uh, head of the organization that our villages are a part of."

Everyone raised a brow and some muttered, "Organization?"

Yume nodded, "Yes, there are three main villages, and many smaller ones, but I'll name just the three main ones. There is mine and Bro's village, 'Kuraigakure no Sato'. Then there is Taiyou-kun's village 'Hikarigakure no Sato'. And then the one Hono'o-sama is from, is Soragakure no Sato."

Everyone thought about what she just said, _Villages hidden in __Darkness__, __Light__, and in the __Sky__._

Yume continued, "Hono'o-sama is the Kage of Sora and is a medic-nin of very high caliber, similar to your Kage, unless Taiyou-kun tells me otherwise."

Everyone turned to Taiyou, who nodded, "They have about the same feel when it comes to power, though Hono'o puts greater effort into putting fear into people. Also, their ways of keeping their bodies young are different, and the way they present themselves, to me, seems that they fight differently."

Gai, who had stopped hugging Lee some time ago, suddenly became serious and asked, "How so?"

Taiyou got a thoughtful look on his face, "The way Tsunade sits and walks; the way she shows that she favors using her fists more so in Taijutsu than her feet, though she can use both. So, I am assuming the medic-nin taijutsu your country uses, consists of using upper body strength. Whereas Hono'o-sama favors using her legs in battle, as you have seen me use in the preliminaries."

Everyone began to remember Taiyou's match, and their faces alight with recognition.

"Despite their difference in style, they would more than likely be on an even level. So I would not suggest being in the same area if they decide to spar."

Yume smiled and nodded, "See?"

Neji then raised an eyebrow, "So, she is coming as well?"

"Yes," Yume said with a little bit of fear in her voice.

Taiyou and Akumu, who were drinking, then registered the fact that Hono'o was coming, and promptly started chocking, Taiyou and Akumu both yelled in surprise, in between coughs and gasps of air, "SHE IS COMING TOO?!"

Everyone backed away in their seats startled. None of them had seen either of the two so full of fear.

Yume waved them off in reassurance, "Its fine, you're not in trouble."

But they didn't hear her as they were trying to fly out of their seats without knocking the table over. Taiyou and Akumu would have run to their room and hid on the closet, but between them and the way out were Yume and Hinata. It was bad enough Taiyou had to sit next to Yume but now Hono'o is coming.

Akumu felt a tap on his left shoulder and looked over at Chouji, "Are you alright?"

Akumu just started to either cry hysterically, laugh uncontrollably, or both.

Everyone else just blinked at them as they thought, _Are we missing something?_

_**Scene Break**_

Later in that week, Taiyou and Akumu, who had all but disappeared for most of said week, were now standing in the conference chamber with the Hokage, the council, and all the other genin teams, this time including Kakashi and his team.

Tsunade leaned forward over the desk she was at and smiled, "So, have you enjoyed your month's rest."

To this Taiyou smiled, though his mouth could not be seen behind his mask, "Ah, yes it was most refreshing, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade smirked, "Ah, polite today? I have not forgotten about your actions before the preliminaries, and do remember that I revoked your privileges."

Taiyou smiled again and produced a scroll, "Ah this was brought by Akumu's sister earlier this week." He then walked up and handed it to her.

Tsunade took it and raised an eyebrow, "Ah yes I remember someone mentioning another arrival." She then opened and read the scroll. After a few seconds she slammed her hands on the desk cracking it, "What the HELL is THIS?!"

Taiyou with that same smile replied, "It is a scroll claiming us as representatives, something they had not done when we first arrived. In case you didn't notice, it states we were not to be claimed until THIS date, so we could hold the title for the finals. It is not our fault you gave us privileges early."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed,"You knew about this."

Taiyou chuckled slightly, "Actually it was unintentional, besides, I am a ninja. I do what it takes to ensure the safety of my partner and yet be efficient at the same time."

Tsunade was gripping the desk, making the cracks that were there wider.

"Now now," Taiyou assured her, "it's not like it's going to be that way forever. You haven't struck me, so there is no war. Besides you won't have to deal with me for long."

Tsunade smirked and sat down, "That is true. But I must say, that was quite clever of you."

Taiyou nodded and laughed a little, "I was taught to always test the boundaries of other villages. I was expecting to go through a wall actually considering your medic-nin abilities."

Akumu, who was unnaturally silent the entire time, just stood there next to Taiyou. He looked like he was deeply contemplating something.

Suddenly they all felt an extremely strong presence behind the door. There were two knocks on the door before Tsunade said for the knockers to enter. The doors opened, and there were two people standing in the doorway.

The first was a wealthy looking woman, who emitted a regal kind of air. Her light brown hair was in a high ponytail, like most high class women who held status, and had eyes similar to Taiyou. She was wearing a tiara like headband, across her forehead, and wore an expensive looking tunic and robe of a pale blue color, along with slightly darker blue leggings. What surprised a few in the room was this shinobi wore her weapon pouch on her right leg.

Taiyou walked up to the woman as she put her hands on his shoulders and kissed his forehead, "Hello, son."

Taiyou smiled as he responded, "Hello, mother."

Ino and Tenten thought to themselves nearly the exact same thing: T_hat is his mother?_

As Taiyou and his mother moved to the side, another woman stepped into the room. Her short black hair was so dark that it could have made raven feathers look bright. This was in contrast to her very pale skin. She wore a sleeveless, jet black kimono under an equally black, and equally sleeveless, opened robe similar to what a Kage would wear. Around her neck she wore a choker, and the pendent that hung from it was a black crescent moon with three water-droplet-like shapes coming from the bottom of it. Strapped to her back was a massive sword. It was midnight blue, with yellow runes going down the broadside of the blade. As she neared the two boys, Tsunade could see her eyes. They were dark violet and slitted vertically. She walked up to Akumu and embraced him silently.

Akumu who was returning the show of affection grinned, "Hey, mother."

As she released her son, Akumu's mother nodded and patted him on the shoulder as she moved to stand in front of the conference table. A council member was about to speak, when the dark-woman crossed her arms and closed her eyes, tapping her foot. The man who was about to speak cleared his throat to bring back her attention, but she kept ignoring him.

As the disgruntled man was about to speak his mind, everyone felt another presence behind the chamber door. As several of the ninja in there, including ANBU, who appeared around the Hokage started reaching for their weapons, Taiyou's mother raised a hand, "Now now, that is unnecessary. It is only the leader of our organization."

Most of the people in the room were lost in confusion, except most of the Genin teams. The door opened, and in walked another woman.

This one was wearing a red robe that went down to cover only a small portion of her thigh. Underneath was a pair of body suit shorts that kept anyone from seeing anything, yet were barely visible under her robe. The rest of her legs were covered by fishnet with a kunai pouch on the side of her right leg, with slippers covering her feet. She had fiery red hair and equally fiery red eyes, and had a slightly tanned complexion.

As she walked up to stand next to the other women, she smiled slightly to the two boys who in turn bowed with very nervous expressions on their faces. As she passed Akumu and Taiyou, she gave them a nod, and after another bow, the two boys made the quickly for the door, and left the meeting, their job there now done.

The fiery-woman came to a stop, slightly in front of the other dark-woman who had claimed Akumu as her son, and stood looking straight at the Hokage, "Greetings, Hokage-sama. I am Kyoretsu Hono'o, Sorakage of Soragakure no Sato. My colleague here beside me is Honshitsu Nemuri," she motioned to Akumu's mother, who bowed but said nothing, "she is Kurayamikage of Kuraigakure no Sato. And this is Seishin Megami, from Hikarigakure no Sato," she motioned to Taiyou's mother, who also bowed, yet said nothing, "she is head of the Seishin Clan, who is here in the Akarikage's stead."

Tsunade nodded in acknowledgment, "It is a pleasure."

Hono'o in turn nodded, "It is unnecessary for your introductions, we already know who everyone in this room is, except the ANBU of course."

The ANBU stayed in the room, but at a farther distance, to watch.

Tsunade blinked a bit before a council member snorted, "You come in here very rudely. I am not sure if we should allow you to become our allies."

Nemuri who was silent until now snorted herself, "Don't be so presumptuous. We could care less if you like us or not. We are here for YOUR benefit."

The council members started laughing all except for Hyuuga, who remained stoic along with all the other shinobi in the room.

Hono'o cleared her throat, "Considering that our enemy organization just picked up Iwa (Rock), kind of puts you in a tight spot."

At that everyone became deadly silent, as Iwa was most definitely a village the Leaf would think twice about trifling with. Hono'o smiled, "We will talk about our military alliance another time privately, but before that I wish to confirm some things first."

The council was silent, so Tsunade spoke, "Then you may ask, if it will assist our negotiations in any way."

Hono'o nodded and lifted something out of her pocket, "Do you know what this is?" She held out her hand and let something dangle for everyone to see, "Do _YOU_ know what this is?"

Tsunade's eyes widened as many of the council and shinobi gasped, except the genin, who were looking at it in confusion. A council member stood quickly, "You steal from us as well?!"

Hono'o smiled, "No this was outside your village."

The councilman snarled, "Liar! That is a necklace that is worth enough buy many mountains. A necklace passed down through Tsunade-sama's family line!"

Sakura gasped, "They managed to sneak in and take that."

Tsunade spoke with a soft voice but eyes filled with suspicion, "No, they didn't, though I am wondering how you got it."

Hono'o, sensing that everyone was no confused, answered Tsunade's silent question, "It is exactly what you're thinking Tsunade. We have your son," Everyone looked around confused, and some of the council members were about to rebuke that claim, but Hono'o spoke again, "After all, isn't that how you see young Naruto?"

The Genin and their senseis silently mumbled to themselves and narrowed their eyes in thought, as Hono'o tossed the necklace back to Tsunade, who caught it and eyed the woman. Tsunade gripped the pendent tightly, "What did you do to him?"

As everyone was looking at her, many of the council members looked smug as they did so. Hono'o answered with a smile, "Nothing at all. He is safe with us, especially from your village."

Kurenai, who was quiet the entire time, asked the next question, "What do you mean safe from our village?"

Megami smiled and spoke, with a very calm and well bred diplomatic voice, "Do not insult us, you know what we mean, and I believe the children will know soon anyway, if the boy himself has anything to say about it."

At this many of the council members were feeling elation. Hono'o started to pace, "However, something caught my interest. I was examining him after he was brought to me in the hospital, and I found a peculiar seal on the boy's stomach," Hono'o looked at everyone to see if they were following her as she spoke, "After a bit of research I found that it was a Shiki Fujin technique that was performed."

Ino who was in heavy thought asked, "What does that mean?"

Hono'o answered her in kind, "This particular seal requires the sacrifice of a human life, so it must have been something big."

All the genin looked up in question, wondering exactly what went on with Naruto. A council member then made a comment, "Then you know what had to have been done with the boy from the start."

Hono'o frowned and answered him as well, "Yes, sent to another village so he could live a happy life without ungrateful cretins like you."

The man who was insulted began to speak, "How dare you-,"

"No, how dare YOU treat the son of your SAVIOR so terrible!" Hono'o yelled back.

Many people blinked at those words, as the council member, who was a bit more calm, asked for clarification, "What do you mean?"

"Do you really think that your Yondaime would choose just ANY baby to seal a demon into? Look at the boy and then look at THAT picture, can't you see the resemblance?" As she spoke this, she pointed at a picture on the wall of the Fourth, "I am a medic, I run blood samples all the time. We have been eyeing your village as a possible ally for a long, long time and our spies have followed many of your shinobi and have taken blood samples from post-battlegrounds. So it IS confirmed on who that boy's father is."

"Naruto, son of the Yondaime? That can't be," said Sakura.

"Why not little girl?" Everyone turned to look at Megami who was looking at her coldly, "Can't imagine the dead-last of your class to have such a prestigious Kage as a parent?"

The entire genin group looked at her in shock at first, then many of them started to glare at her, many of them thinking, _What is it that she knows?!_

Sakura regained her composure and snorted, "If his father was the Fourth, then why didn't he tell us then. And for that matter, what did he seal?"

Tsunade was still looking at the pendent, when beside her Hyuuga Hiashi answered the girl, "It is hard to tell people that kind of information when all your life people hated you for that very reason. And as for his heritage, he never knew." The man sighed, "The boy went through a lot, as the villagers only saw him as the bane of their existence." At this, many of Naruto's fellow ninja had their blood run cold.

Hono'o closed her eyes, "I don't think having rocks thrown at you by the villagers when you were three years old would help either. The battle can be explained in detail later if you cannot believe that he is a vessel. However, I don't see how you can't see who his father is, especially since there are so few blonde hair and blue eyed people in Konoha."

The room was silent as the shinobi were still deep in thought, and the council members were wondering what to do about this new development. One of the council members looked up from his musings, "We require confirmation of your claims. We would like to have the boy examined by our medical staff."

"NO, absolutely not!" Everyone's head snapped to Nemuri, who was glaring at the council, "We will not allow the boy to be brought to the place that has caused him to become mentally ill." Naruto's classmates looked at the woman in horror, "When we found the boy he was fragile, and because of his state the seal had fractured which meant it will no longer kill the demon when, he himself, dies."

This was not something the people of the Leaf wanted to hear.

"It cannot be repaired either," Everyone turned to the window to see a serious looking man with long white hair.

Tsunade looked down then looked back up at the man, "Nothing can be done Jiraiya?"

"Without killing myself or the boy? No, I am afraid not," Then as he looked at the council he added, as an afterthought, "And I will NOT kill him."

"That too is the same opinion we have as well," Hono'o told the white-headed man.

Tsunade looked up from the pendent, to meet Hono'o's gaze, "If you don't intend to help him or hand him back over to us, what do you plan to do?"

Though she had been silent majority of the time except for her scuffle with Sakura, Taiyou's mother, Megami, let loose a flamboyantly loud laugh. This caused Taiyou's belly to feel like it was full of cement, in embarrassment. Her laugh ended quite suddenly, and with a sound of mellow calmness in her voice she spoke up, "I don't recall Hono'o-sama saying we couldn't help the young blond-boy, but only that we couldn't repair the seal."

Tsunade rose up from her seat, with an urgent look on her face, "You don't mean you'll free that thing inside of him!?"

Nemuri started to chuckle, though such a small sound normally wouldn't make a large impact, the fact that it was so full of malice as she eyed the council member that wanted Naruto to die, that the temperature felt like it dropped drastically, filling some in the room with dread, "You are a little late, I am afraid." Everyone's eyes widened at that proclamation. Some were wondering why Akumu's mother's attitude was so different his, a normally carefree person.

Tsunade was in shock, but before she said anything Hono'o spoke first, "However, I wouldn't worry too much. The demon can't even move very far anyways, seeing as it IS still partially chained to the boy. It just has a little more freedom than it used to," Tsunade was looking at her necklace again with concern, when Hono'o continued, "Of course, you can always come visit the boy, seeing as how I doubt we will finish our negotiations here."

At this everyone looked up at the woman.

"Why do you say that?" a counsel-man said.

"It's simple, because our three villages are not the only ones that are a part of this alliance. You need to meet the others before you can actually join," Some of the council members were grumbling angrily to themselves. Hono'o smirked, "And another reason why we won't be able to finish, is because you may be attacked soon."

This snapped all shinobi to attention as she continued, "It isn't really going to be a full on attack, nothing you can't handle, but we managed to stop any internal problems."

Tsunade instantly went from overly concerned woman to a Kage in seconds, "How so? And when will this take place?"

Hono'o sighed and held her hands up shrugging, "I am not sure EXACTLY, just around the finals," then she blinked and turned to Taiyou, "Speaking of which. . . "

Taiyou answered in kind, "We were just leaving to get ready," and with that Akumu and Taiyou said their goodbyes and left.

Tsunade tilted her head slightly and asked in an inquisitive voice, "I take it they are not normal genins either?"

Megami smiled and answered in a voice that seemed to say _'duh',_ "Of course not, seeing as how some of your genins here could have passed on and may possibly reach jounin, we couldn't send just the run of the mill, inexperienced shinobi now would we? They may have just fibbed a little about how strong they actually were."

Tsunade's eyebrow started to twitch, _Her voice is annoying._

"Um, I have a question," everyone turned to Rock Lee who had an inquisitive look on his face, "What kind of demon does he have?"

Hono'o turned her head towards him and said, "A very scary one," really quickly, and turned back to Tsunade, without a second thought towards Lee.

Lee sat down and thought of a very, unrealistically, scary monster.

"So, I have said almost everything I need to say, especially around the children," At the word children, everyone glowered at Hono'o.

Tsunade nodded, "Very well, I believe everyone has training anyways."

After they were gone, Tsunade looked at Hono'o dead in the eye, as Tsunade spoke, "Now, for the full reason you are here."

_**Scene Break**_

Akumu and Taiyou hadn't made it fifty feet from Hokage Tower, when a shrilly voice screamed out their names. As both of them looked back to see who's voice it was, even though they already knew to whom it belonged it, they saw an Ino with a very angry face. They also noticed the large group of genins standing behind her, each wearing a serious face.

"Did you want something, Ino?" Akumu said to her as she walked swiftly towards them.

"Yeah! We want to know why you didn't tell us!" Ino shouted in Akumu's face, when she closed the gap between them.

"Ok, two things; one: it's rude to yell in people's faces," Akumu said to Ino, which only seemed to make her madder, "And two: I have no idea what you're talking about."

Ino's fury got the best of her, and Akumu just pushed her over the edge. She started to growl to herself for a few seconds, and then with a yell, she was going to bonk Akumu so bad he'd have headaches for weeks. But just as the fist was about to hit him, her attack stopped. Akumu had raised his hand, easily stopping her attack. Her angry face flashed to surprise.

With a serious expression on his face, and a serious tone in his voice that seemed to not belong to the happy-go-lucky guy they knew, Akumu said, "I let you get away with that before, but now I think it's time you stopped doing this. Didn't you know? That's quite rude too."

Ino lowered her hand, the surprised look gone, and the angry face back, "Just tell us! Why haven't you told us that you and your organization have Naruto?"

"Fine, fine," Akumu said as he rubbed his forehead in stress. When he looked back up to Ino, he said, "We didn't think we could trust you."

"What? Couldn't trust us!?" Tenten yelled back to him, "Haven't we been very hospitable and kind since you got here?"

"Yes, you have. And both Tai and I thank you greatly. It's not that we don't trust you entirely, it's just that we trust Shidosha's word over yours."

Ino's angry face merged with a look of confusion, "Who is Shidosha?"

"Why should I tell you? Hmmm? If you knew, what good would it do you?! Would you begin to make demands of me? Sometimes you're just as bad as the rest of these villagers, and you only disgrace Shidosha by speaking his name!" Akumu's words struck a bad chord for everyone around him, excluding Taiyou, who was actually surprised at Akumu's seriousness. Akumu turned away, and started walking towards the village, "Come on, Tai. Let's go back to our room."

Both of them walked down the road towards the busy market streets, leaving a bunch of distraught people behind.

_**--Scene Break--**_

The black and white duo had walked all the way back to their room in silence. Neither felt it necessary to say anything. They unlocked the door, and while still silent, shuffled their way into the place they had been living for the past month or so.

Akumu let himself fall lengthwise onto the couch, and he just looked up at the ceiling. Taiyou took a seat at the foot of his bed, on the other side of the room. He looked at Akumu, and then looked back down at the ground at his feet, as he removed his mask and rubbed his face. They sat around for a few seconds, those seconds turning to minutes, those minutes turning to hours. Slowly, the room began to take on a yellow tint, as the light of a sun beginning to set shined in through the window.

Both of them had so many thoughts running through their heads, they were surprised their heads didn't explode.

Though not entirely aware of the fact, Akumu was slowly falling for Hinata. He had spent quite a lot of time with her during the three weeks they had after the _Forest of Death._ If he was not palling around with Taiyou, he was hanging with Hinata and her team. Akumu had actually become pretty good friends with Kurenai and her team, minus Kiba of course who, for some reason, had a thing against Akumu. But she was a Leaf, and all Leafs are bad, or so at one point he had thought.

During his time in the hospital, Taiyou had been shown nothing but friendliness and caring from the nurses and doctors. Quite a few times, he had been visited by Tenten, Ino, and Chouji. Tenten and Ino tried to come at different times, but on one occasion they happened to be visiting at the same time, and how they acted towards each other made Taiyou laugh on the inside. What bugged Taiyou, though, was the fact that he never asked them to visit him. They did it of their own free will, out of friendship, not obligation. But they were Leafs, and all Leafs are bad, or so at one point had thought.

Taiyou's thoughts were cut short by a loud noise. It was loud and harsh, like a bear being mauled by a much bigger beast. His head shot up towards where the noise was coming from. He frowned once he saw the source of the noise. It was Akumu; he had fallen asleep on the couch, and was snoring away. Taiyou got up off the bed, and was about to kick Akumu awake, when he heard another noise. It was coming from the front door. Knock, knock it went.

Taiyou left Akumu were he laid, and walked over to the door, but stopped a foot away. The knocking came again. Taiyou just stared at the doorknob. Then he heard a voice.

"Taiyou! We know you're in there!" said a high-pitched and screechy voice, which caused Taiyou to wince, knowing the voice belonged to Ino.

"Please, Taiyou. We want to talk to you," said a second, much softer voice, which Taiyou recognized as Tenten's voice.

Ino's voice screeched out again, "HEY! Open up already! Don't you know it's rude not to answer a door?"

Taiyou sighed, as he slowly opened the door most of the way, and stood there looking at the people in the hallway. Taiyou was right about Ino and Tenten being outside, but with them were Hinata and Chouji. He looked at them for a second, and said, "Please, come in."

Ino and Tenten had seen Taiyou without his mask before, but they had never gotten a good look at him before. He was quite handsome.

Everyone filed into the room, and Taiyou followed them as he closed the door. Taiyou took his seat back on the foot of his bed, Hinata sat down on the couch next to the sleeping Akumu, Tenten and Ino took a seat on the foot of Akumu's bed, and Chouji stood next to Hinata. Akumu gave a loud snore, causing Hinata to giggle slightly.

Everyone was there, but for a while no one said a word.

Tenten finally broke the silence, "Taiyou, we've come to apologize," she said as she elbowed Ino in the ribs, causing her to jump slightly.

Rubbing her ribs, Ino said, "Yes, I'm really sorry for how I exploded on you and him," she pointed to Akumu, "I know you can't tell us everything, and I know you wouldn't try at all, but what I heard during the meeting caught me, and everyone else, off guard. Many of the council members were outraged to hear that one of our own was being held in another village."

Though Taiyou knew, more or less, what was said during the meeting, he could not help but ask, "Ok, I know, more or less, what was said during the meeting, but I can't help but ask about the details. What was exactly said during the meeting?"

Ino and Tenten began to explain as best they could what was said during the meeting a few hours prior. Taiyou silently listened, but nothing she said surprised him in the least. Ino rubbed her forehead as she finished, "You see? That's why I blew-up at you. Everything was slightly confusing, and I directed my confusion at the wrong people."

"Yes, you did," Taiyou said with a factual tone, which made Ino slightly sadder, "but it's understandable. Here you are, palling around with two people who know where your long lost friend is, and not once have they told you or anyone where he is or how he's doing. I'm very sure that would piss me off, if I was in your shoes. But, you have to look at it from our angle. We have a job to do, and part of that job isn't going around telling classified information, especially to people of a different village."

Tenten looked at Taiyou, "Is that why you don't trust us? Is it because we're from a different village?"

Taiyou sighed, not knowing what to say, when another voice started talking.

No one had noticed but for a few minutes, the sounds of snoring had stopped. Akumu didn't leave his sleeping position on the couch as he started talking, "It's not that."

Hinata and Chouji were so focused on what Taiyou was saying that when Akumu started to talk it startled both of them slightly.

"Let me tell you a story about a man," Akumu continued, "This man had once spent time here in this village. During his time here, the villagers were none to pleasant towards him. He would make the occasional friend from time to time, but no matter what, this place treated him nothing more than a burden and against his will, he left. It seems this place was no better off without him. That man was our leader, Shidosha, and he would often tell us of his adventures and the places he'd been and the things he'd experienced. But, whenever he would mention this place, his voice would fill with a combination of nostalgia and spite."

"And we've lived with that notion of this place for a long time," Taiyou added, "Yet, we've slowly started seeing that maybe what we've been told isn't quite accurate. Or, maybe it was, and we're merely not seeing it yet. We can honestly call you our friends, and that's where it's hard for us. To sum it up, we've been told that the Leaf was bad. We see different, though the average villager has yet to warm up to Akumu or I, even though we've been here for some time. All of this is just as confusing for us as it is to you."

"So! Now we've come to an understanding," Akumu said, "We'll try to be more honest about stuff, as long as you don't expect us to be able to tell you everything."

"Akumu!" Taiyou scolded.

"Aw, fine!" Akumu looked around nervously, "I'm sorry I yelled at you like I did."

Slowly and with a smile, Hinata placed her hand on his, "its ok, Akumu-kun."

"I'm glad this is all fixed! I mean, I couldn't have Taiyou mad at me forever. If he was, then who would come buy flowers?" Ino said, a bit more cheery.

The only response was a smile and thumbs up.

Ino and Tenten blushed, for they had never seen Taiyou's smile, and they liked it.

Chouji, who had been silently listening the entire time, spoke up, "Alright! We should all go and get some food to celebrate our returned friendship!"

Akumu had not eaten all day, and was about to jump up and agree with Chouji when Taiyou cut him off, "Sorry, Chouji. We'd love to go with you, but Akumu and I have a bit of planning to do for the finals of the Exam."

Both Chouji and Akumu's head dropped in sadness. Hinata patted Akumu on the back, telling him that tomorrow she'd bring him a box-lunch, and he perked up instantly.

Taiyou continued, "I hate to rush you guys out, but we have a lot of work to do. I promise you'll see us tomorrow at the pre-finals meeting."

As he stood, Ino and Tenten jumped up and hugged Taiyou, making him blush slightly. When they let go, they rushed to the door, with a still depressed Chouji following behind them. Hinata gave Akumu a smile, and she followed the rest of her friends.

After everyone had left, Akumu looked at Taiyou and said, "So, can we talk over dinner?"

_**-Scene Break-**_

_A few days later…_

The morning was bright and sunny, and the faint sounds of cheering were heard in the air. Today was the day of the finals of the Chuunin Exams. Today the best of the best will duke it out between themselves in order to prove that they are worthy enough to graduate to the Chuunin-Class level.

Many of the main streets were empty, and the stores closed, as everyone in Konoha had a seat in the great arena where the fights were to take place. Well, not everyone in Konoha was at the arena, for there was a young man rushing towards the arena as fast as he could.

Akumu had been so excited that his battle was one of the first ones that he could hardly sleep, no matter what he tried.

The day prior, during the pre-finals meeting, he was given a card with the number "two" written on it. That was the match in which he would fight. One of the other ninjas at that meeting also got a number "two" card, which would be his opponent. No one was allowed to show or tell anyone else their number. The point was that, like most battles and missions, only limited information is given, and to be a good ninja is to be prepared for all things. So, that meant that the matches were to be surprises till the day of the finals.

Excitement kept Akumu up for most of the night. Even his ability to meditate could not help, as his fighting spirit kept breaking his focus, which was unusual. Unfortunately, he ended up over sleeping, and as he ran as fast as he could to the arena he cursed Taiyou's name for not waking him up when he left this morning.

As he reached the arena, the sounds of cheering suddenly increased. Akumu hoped that he had not sleep through his match. That would just be disgraceful to him and his village.

A guard at the entrance of the arena flagged Akumu to a stop as he tried to enter, telling him that the spectator's entrance was on the other side.

Akumu explained his situation and asked the guard if the second match had already past. Lucky for him, the final match had just ended just as the guard stopped Akumu. Akumu cheered loudly, making the guard a little nervous. The guard had never seen anyone so ready to fight before.

Akumu got directions to the waiting room, where he could prepare himself one last time before his match started, but before the guard could tell him anymore, Akumu had bolted the direction he was told, leaving the guard in mid-sentence.

As he entered the nice little waiting room, Akumu noticed that there was another person in the room. One he had not expected to see there.

_**-Scene Break-**_

A bright and sunny day caused slight shadows, from small patches of clouds that casually drifted across the sky, which slowly dragged across the stands full of spectators and across the battle-ground. The crowds cheered, as the second round of the finals matches of the chuunin-exam were underway.

Tsunade stood up from her seat in the middle of the VIP-box, and gave the signal for everyone in the arena to quite down, for the second fight was about to begin. Along with her in the VIP box were Sora Village's Kage, Hono'o, Taiyou's mother Megami, and Akumu's mother and sister, Nemuri and Yume. Keeping close watch on Tsunade and the visitors were the ever vigilant ANBU.

As soon as everyone quieted down, Tsunade pointed towards one of the entrances to the battle-area. When she did, the doors opened, and Ino walked into the light, and the crowd began to cheer once again.

Ino started to feel really good about this, and she threw a few punches and let loose a few kicks, which only made the crowd cheer more. This got Ino even more pumped, and continued to show her skills with various flips, kicks, punches, and aerial maneuvers. Again, this caused the crowd to cheer.

Once again, Tsunade gave the signal for everyone in the stands to become silent, and they did. She pointed to the other entrance to the arena, and those doors quickly flew open, slamming loudly as they hit the walls. Many of the spectators edged forward in their seats to see what was happening.

The darkness within the hallway, just before the opening, seemed to slowly creep out into the opening. At first, it was just a mere shadow, slowly spreading away from the doorway. Then, as it got some distance away from the door, it began to contract upon itself. As the shadows became more and more condensed into a single spot, it began to rise up off the ground into a sort of black goo. It bubbled up higher and higher, until it began to take a slightly humanoid form. Fine-details and color quickly began to show in the gooey figure, till it finally took the shape of a complete person.

Akumu.

There was almost no cheering. Everyone in the stands was too surprised by this unusual introduction to really be able respond at all. Though, if one paid attention, the very faint sounds of clapping could be heard. Taiyou, Chouji, and Hinata clapped from their places in the stands, and Akumu's mother and sister clapped from the VIP-box. Hono'o didn't clap at all, but she was smiling quite proudly. Out of all the elites that have come from Sora, Kurai, and Hikari; Akumu and Taiyou have always had a sense of style.

Ino was not affected by this. She was quite used to him at this point, and in fact, was quite glad she was getting the chance to fight him. This would give her a chance to show Akumu just exactly what she can do, and for her to see exactly what he could do, since up to this point he and Taiyou had not done much of anything and whenever they did it was very unusual.

Once Tsunade saw that both fighters were ready, she started to speak to the crowd around her, "Konoha!" she started to yell, "For our second round we have a battle between our own Yamanaka Ino, versus visiting Kurai Village member, Honshitsu Akumu."

Slowly at first, and then much faster, cheering began to fill the arena again.

Tsunade motioned for everyone to become silent. When the cheering faded, Tsunade continued, "Are you ready?" she asked the two fighters, who are waiting to begin.

Neither of the two had to respond with words. Ino had just finished stretching out her muscles, and was bobbing up and down in her stance, ready to rumble. Akumu was merely standing still with a smile on his face, yet his shadow had lost Akumu's shape, and was shaking across the ground in excitement, almost uncontrollably.

"With that," Tsunade said, "Let round two, BEGIN!"

Ino beat her fist into her other open palm, trying to look intimidating, "Are you ready for this, Akumu?"

Akumu only had a simple question in response, "Ino, do you believe in monsters?" His voice had a malicious tint to it.

Ino stopped her bouncing, not entirely used to him sounding that way, but never left her fighting stance, "What do you mean 'do I believe in monsters'? Monsters are nothing more than the mind fighting against you," with that said, Ino started to charge towards Akumu.

As she rushed at him, Akumu began a short chain of hand-seals, the figures on his gauntleted hand moving as nimble as if he had no gauntlet. Ino figured she could attack him before he finished whatever move he had planned, but the chain was shorter than she thought.

Akumu's last sign was not one anyone from Konoha could recognize. He clinched both hands into tight fists, and slammed his knuckles together, mere inches in front of Ino's face, causing her to prematurely stop her assault and back off a few feet. The loud clang from Akumu's iron knuckles striking his normal knuckles left a slight ringing in her ears, and, for a few fractions of a second Akumu slightly went out of focus in her eyes.

"Wow that was close! You nearly crushed my head with that attack. You're definitely not pulling any punches," Ino smirked, having successfully avoided such a potentially devastating attack.

"I was hoping you'd fail to stop yourself. Shows what I know, I guess," Akumu laughed, both at Ino and himself as he rubbed his chin in thought, then he continued, "But, there is one thing you did fail at," Ino was just about to ask him what he was talking about when Akumu raised his right unarmored hand straight out.

He said not a word, but his shadow quickly rose up off the ground and wrapped around his outstretched hand, the shadow bubbling and spazming in a gooey, black pillar that went from the ground to Akumu's hand. As fast as it came, the shadow-pillar disappeared back into Akumu's regular shadow, and left in its place, clutched in his hand, was the biggest sword Ino had ever seen.

It looked to simply be a large, flat slab of what seemed to be cast-iron, on the end of a "T" shaped handle. To Ino, it reminded her of a paddle one would use to row a boat. Ino guessed that the length of the blade rose up about five feet, and was almost a foot wide. Ino noticed that there was no "cutting blade" anyplace on the slab, only flat edges. It would never cut or stab like what a normal sword with an edge or a point would do, but the sheer weight of the iron slab would probably just crush anything into two. Though, she was sure that Akumu would not be able to lift it much, even with both hands.

With a slight grunt, Akumu slowly lifted up the sword with one hand, and let the slab rest on his shoulder. Without turning from Ino, Akumu pointed to the crowd and yelled, "TAI! COME DOWN HERE FOR A MOMENT!"

"What!?" Ino screamed in surprise, as she watched Taiyou get up from his seat in the stands and jump down next to Akumu.

"Ino, I want you to meet my good friend of mine," Akumu said in a happy tone.

"What are you talking about? I already know who Taiyou is!" she yelled back at him. She was about to yell at Taiyou for joining his friend in battle when Akumu spoke first.

"No no no no no, I don't mean Taiyou. I mean this," Akumu lifted the slab off his shoulder, and let it fall to the ground. It shook and cracked the earth a little bit, under its weight, "This _little _beauty is called 'Hitogoroshitetsu', and is the pride and joy of the Honshitsu Clan," Akumu spoke with pride.

"Who cares about that? Taiyou, get out of here, this is my battle!" Ino yelled at both of them.

Akumu looked at Taiyou, and then looked back at Ino, "Oh my, you're quite right Ino. How rude of me," and with that, Akumu took hold of the thick handle with both hands and with a wide and vicious arc, the slab separated Taiyou's torso from his legs at the waist. Ino tried to scream as she watched the upper-half of Taiyou fly away from this lower-half which had first fallen to its knees, before falling to the ground completely.

Ino rushed over to where Taiyou's torso landed, and she'd fallen to her knees with tears running down her face as she looked over the bloody mess. She quickly looked up at Akumu, who had just shoved this sword a few inches into the ground. He looked down at her and started to laugh evilly, as she looked back down at Taiyou's torso.

"You may not believe in monsters, but just because you don't believe, doesn't mean they don't exist," Akumu stopped talking to laugh again, "OH, monsters are very, very real. If you still don't think so, then just look at me!"

Ino looked up at him, and his face was little more than an inch from hers. She could clearly see the deep violet eyes with the slitted pupils. They were glowing, and his sudden closeness shocked her and she jumped backwards a bit.

Akumu continued, "Or maybe, you're the monster!" he said with a _for-your-information_ attitude. He pointed down to where Taiyou's torso had been. And what Ino saw was the single most frightening thing she'd ever seen in her life.

The torso was no longer Taiyou's, but hers. What was worse was that it was no longer a lifeless torso, as it was starting to crawl towards her, blood pumping from every opening in her body. So much blood, in fact, that Ino could not explain where all the blood was still coming from.

Raising his sword with one hand, pointing it up to a sky that's no longer blue and full of clouds, but empty blackness, Akumu yelled, "INO! I am Honshitsu Akumu! I am the darkness that lives inside your dreams. When you sleep, I am there churning out all manner of evil things to torment you. And though you may feel safe when you're awake, know that I am always waiting. I am truly your worst nightmare!"

Ino looked around, frantically trying to find some way out of this hell. Looking through the crowds she saw a figure in white, which almost seemed to glow slightly.

It was Taiyou.

_What? How?_ Ino thought. Then suddenly, the world got a good bit clearer in her mind, much like how a dreamscape looks to you once you realize you're dreaming. _Nightmare?_ She continued to think. And, as she continued to question herself, the area around her continued to become more into focus. She knew that Akumu would never harm Taiyou, although if you would have told her that only a minute ago, she would have told you otherwise. _But, why?_ She continued to question.

She had not realized it, but the look on Akumu's face went from evil, to annoyed, "Oh no you don't!" he screamed at her as he back flipped gracefully into his own shadow, quite gracefully considering he still held on to his large sword.

Ino was no longer afraid, as though she had hit upon some great idea that was pushing away the fear. The only problem was that she just could not put her finger on what it was.

Akumu knew what it was, and he knew he had very little time before she figured it out on her own. He had not expected that she would get through this as quick as she was. Too quick for Ino to react to, Akumu came spinning out of her shadow, his massive blade swishing in the air as he spun. With a yell, Akumu brought the force of his blade upon Ino's neck, but unfortunately for him, he was a few seconds too late.

At that exact moment, it finally hit Ino, _I'm dreaming. _

The world around her rushed about in a deafening maelstrom. She closed her eyes as she covered her ears, but that only gave minor support. After a short second, the roar of the crowd around her replaced the roaring maelstrom. As she opened her eyes, she saw Akumu back flipping into his shadow, with his giant sword in his grasp. With barely any time to think, Ino ducked down mere moments before Akumu came rushing out of her shadow swinging his sword where Ino's neck once was.

As he flew over Ino, Akumu skidded across the ground, as he used his sword as an anchor to slow him down, the clouds of dirt his sword picked up billowed around him, "Aw crap! You escaped!" he said in a disappointed tone, "Oh well, guess we'll just have to do this the old-fashion way."

_**-Scene Break-**_

As soon as Akumu slammed his fists together, forcing Ino to stop her assault, Ino grasped her head with her hands, and began to scream. As she stood there screaming, Akumu summoned a pillar of black good to an outstretched hand. Once it vanished, what was left behind was a massive sword, clutched in his hands.

As odd as this was, the crowd thought it was very exciting. So did Tenten, Hinata, and Chouji who had front-row seats next to Taiyou, who was happily watching the fight.

"What is going on down there? What did he do to her?" Tenten quietly asked herself.

Taiyou could not help but overhear, "He used a very special form of genjutsu he created."

"Does it drive people mad?" Tenten asked.

"Not really," he replied, "The move hypnotizes you into a sleep-like state. Therein he forces you to witness horrific images, normally scenes of your worst fear or of something he knows will affect you the most."

"Like a nightmare?" Hinata asked.

"Very good, Hyuga-san," Taiyou said as he gave her a thumbs-up, "In fact, he even named the move after himself, calling it the 'Akumu no Jutsu'. While you're trapped in the 'nightmare', like in any genjutsu, you're helpless to the whim of those out here in the real-world. It's a good quality genjutsu in that one of its features is that it is dispelled in an odd way. One can't dispel it via the normal method, as it's easier to simply 'wake up'. Dreams are fragile things built upon the minds of those who dream them. There is always something within the nightmares that Akumu creates, which act like switches. Switches that help you wake up, that show you that what you're experiencing is only a dream, and bring you back to the real-world. Those who are strong willed or those highly disciplined in the ways of the mind often break free faster than your average person. He's tried hard to abolish that part, but he has yet to succeed."

"It's got quite the flaw," Tenten pondered.

"Well," Taiyou responded, "There's much more to it than that. It's actually much harder to break out, since when you dream, you almost never realize it. Honestly, what's really the difference between dreams and reality? One may ask 'Oh, well how could you not notice it's all just a dream?'. Well, much the way you wouldn't question the existence of a purple and orange cat seen in a dream while dreaming, you wouldn't question the horrors he often shows you in his nightmares while you're experiencing them. Only if you're focused enough, can you see the exit, and sometimes it takes a long while to grasp it. Once you KNOW you're dreaming, the dream ends. That's why you can't dispel it through normal methods, for once you become aware enough to try and dispel it, you're already on your way out of the move."

"That sounds a bit cruel," Hinata said, looking down at the screaming Ino, and to Akumu who yelling to the crowd the name of his sword.

"She's in no pain, if that's what you're worrying about," Taiyou assured her, "He normally uses this move to halt another person dead in their tracks, so he can escape and such. Though, since he almost never runs from a fight, he'll often wait for the nightmares to end before he makes any sort of action. Like when you wake suddenly from a nightmare, it often takes a few moments for you to realize you're no longer sleeping, and that the dream is no longer effecting you. So, when you break free of his nightmares and then see him, you might just run in fear, as Akumu is often the focus of the fear he instills in the nightmares. But, for those who are a bit heartier, this move only serves as a demoralizer," as Taiyou finished explaining, he noticed Ino had stopped screaming, and was slowly opening her eyes, "Ah! It looks like she's coming around!"

It seemed she regained consciousness fast enough to see Akumu back-flip into his shadow, was able to duck moments before he emerged from her shadow, and avoided a fatal blow to her neck. She was showing some skills, and Taiyou was enjoying every second of it.

_**-Scene Break-**_

As Akumu's skidding finally came to a halt, Ino was shaking off the last of the willies. She was sure she was free of that horrible move Akumu used, and was sure to dodge the move if he tried it again. But, the feeling of dread still had a grasp on her, as the visions from what she just experienced replayed in her mind. She shook her head, trying to force the images from her mind which caused her to miss whatever it was Akumu had just said.

With a grin, Akumu slowly lifted his heavy sword up with his right hand, and pointed it at her.

_Well, it seems that his sword is real enough. If I get hit by that, it'll be the end of the line for me,_ Ino thought to herself. She took a few seconds to look at Akumu. Though he was holding the huge sword with one hand, she could see he was having a tough time keeping it up. He was strong, no doubt about that, but the sword was just too big to wield one-handed to any real extent.

Seeing that she was not moving, Akumu let the sword fall to the ground, causing it to crack the earth slightly, and said, "Are we going to do anything? Or, are we just going to sit here for a while?"

"I'd tell you, but I highly doubt you'd listen," she responded, showing no fear.

"You're right," he quickly said, as he started to charge toward her, the sword held in is unarmored right hand scraped the ground as he ran.

_Wait for it!_ She thought as she watched him charge right at her.

Akumu had gotten within swords reach, when he stopped his advance. As hard as he could, he twisted his body to the left, in the same direction the sword arced towards Ino. As soon as the handle came within arm's reach, he grabbed it with his armored left hand, and the blade moved much faster.

_That's it!_ Ino thought, as at the last moment, she fell flat on her back. Akumu's sword flew right over Ino, cutting nothing but air. Ino quickly got up, but the momentum from Akumu's attack continued his sword swipe as it came around a three-sixty spin. She barely had time, but she was able to leap over Akumu, dodging the sword as it came back around. During her mid-air stunt, she withdrew a kunai, with an exploding tag wrapped around the blade. She tossed it at Akumu's unguarded back, and once it hit its mark, it exploded, kicking up dirt and sand clouds. Ino landed a few feet from where Akumu had been, waiting for the smoke to clear, for she knew such a simple attack would not have taken him down.

The clouds of smoke and dirt, billowed for a few seconds, and nothing else happened. A nice breeze had started to pick up, and quickly the clouds began to move. Akumu's form could be seen, the huge sword held up against his back, steam slightly coming off the spot where the exploding kunai hit.

"You know, that was really close, and I mean that," Akumu said with a supporting tone in his voice that seemed to be betrayed by the evil smile that crossed his face. He turned to face her, the sword held firmly in both hands, "Let's rock!" Again, Akumu started to charge.

This time Ino decided it was time to take the offensive. Akumu's sword was powerful, but it was a bit on the slow side. She drew a kunai in each hand, _Speed wins over power._

He gave her a downward chop, the sword carving out a nice bit of the ground, but she had quickly moved to the side, dodging the attack. She stabbed out at his sides, but Akumu jumped up and balanced himself upside down on his upward standing sword, dodging her attack. She tried to attack his arms but he balanced himself on his unarmored hand, and used the hand covered by the gauntlet as a shield, successfully blocking every attack.

Before Ino could react, Akumu back-flipped off of his sword, yanking the blade off the ground and above him and arc that came crashing down in front of him in a vicious attack. Lucky for Ino, she was just a few inches out of the blades reach; feeling the wind caused by the blades movement, rush across her face. As the blade hit the ground, the earth shattered, pelting both of them with small stones. It stung, but neither of them were about to let something as simple as rocks bother them.

Though the rocks did not hurt, it was still quite a distraction to Ino, and she did not see Akumu use his sword to pole-vault a drop-kick into her gut. The wind was kicked clean out of her, as both heavy boots found their place in her stomach. She was sent flying a few feet before she hit the ground, skidding another few feet. As she came to a stop, she tried desperately to breathe, but it was slow to fix.

Akumu propped the sword up on his shoulder, and causally walked up to where Ino had stopped skidding, who was currently trying to get back to her feet with her back to him.

"You know," he said, "just be glad this isn't real combat. It's really, REALLY easy to kill, but it's really, REALLY hard to just wound. After all, this is just a friendly fight. If you were my enemy, it would've really showed you what I can do. Of course, now that I think about it, my first real attack on you would've killed you, had you not dodged it. . . Oops. Sorry about that."

Ino smiled to herself, and before Akumu could do anything about it, he realized he was caught as Ino screamed, "Shinranshin no Jutsu!"

Akumu stopped talking and moving, then for no reason, he dropped his sword and he began punching himself. Akumu had always known that he was one of the toughest guys in his organization, but punishing himself was an unreal thought. Punch after punch he gave himself, and he wasn't sure why. It was almost like something was controlling him. He was wincing really hard, as though he was focusing on a thought as hard as he could. What he was actually doing was trying to focus on getting out of whatever it was Ino had done to him, and because he was starting to hurt.

_**-Scene Break-**_

"Well, this is quite unusual situation," Taiyou said as he rubbed his mask where his chin would have been.

"What? You don't know about Ino's 'Shinranshin no Jutsu'? I thought you knew everything about us," Chouji asked.

"We know quite a bit, but Akumu and I were briefed only on so much before we left. We were mainly told about the main, and much more dangerous, families in Konoha."

"What do you mean 'The main, and much more dangerous, families'?"

"Err, that's to say the families of the Uchiha, the Hyuga, and the Aburame. That's not to say that the rest of the main families aren't dangerous, but it was felt that those three families were worth knowing about, in the event things turned sour during our visit."

Chouji did not say anything. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Taiyou in a way that would have said "Is that so?" He grunted at Taiyou, and continued to watch the match.

_**-Scene Break-**_

Akumu was getting really pissed, as he watched himself beat himself up over this situation, literally. He now knew what it felt like to be punched by him, and he actually felt sorry for all the people he had beaten up. Around the twentieth punch, Akumu started losing count. He did not mind the punches from his normal hand, but the metal the gauntlet was made of was very hard, and left bruises where it struck.

Ino just laughed, as she knelt, holding up a hand-seal that was usual to Akumu, _I've got you now, and just a little more of this and the match will be all mine! I'm quite lucky, though. The Shinranshin no Jutsu makes you attack your allies, and I wasn't sure what it would've done with just you by yourself. Well, I'm glad to know how this move works on just a lone person, _She thought.

_Gah! Shadow, do something!_ Akumu screamed in his mind. From within his shadow, black gooey tentacles shot up and wrapped themselves around his arms, stopping his self-assault.

That's when Ino got a chance to see the damage Akumu had caused himself under her control. He was bleeding from the corner of his mouth and nose, and small bruises began to form in a few areas on his face and on his chest. His arms tried to fight the gooey tentacles, but they held on tight.

"How?" she said accidentally out loud. She should have had control over his body, so why was his shadow acting on its own?

Emerging in front Akumu, right at his feet, a large bulge of goo slowly started to come up off the ground, and began stretching out at Ino. As it got closer, it started to take the form of a snake or dragon, Ino was not quite sure. It let out a deep hiss as it opened, what Ino assumed was, a mouth full of teeth, letting small bits of goo drop to the ground, only to become shadows with nothing to support them which quickly vanished.

Ino was sure she thought she heard this shadowy serpent call out her name in that deep hissing sound, and it was starting to scare her.

The shadow stopped advancing, and started to rear back, much like how a snake does before it strikes. It let out another hiss, and quickly shot out to bite at Ino. Ino jumped backwards as far as she could as quick as she could, breaking her concentration on Akumu. She was not sure if the shadow serpent would hurt her or not, but knowing how Akumu was, she did not wish to find out.

As soon as she leapt backwards, Akumu let out a grunt as his arms stopped fighting the tentacles, which quickly retreated back into his shadow. The shadowy serpent, having done its job, fell to the ground, where it became nothing but a simple shadow, which was reabsorbed back into Akumu's shadow. With his bare hand, he rubbed his face, which hurt quite a bit, and with his armored hand, he rubbed his chest and belly, which also took quite a beating.

Between his fingers, Akumu looked at Ino, who was silently cursing at herself for breaking out of her move, "Damn girl! That was one hell of a move. I'm so impressed, that I won't kill you for doing this to me-," he stopped talking as his hand touched a sensitive bruise on his cheek, which made him wince.

His unarmored arm hurt like hell too, as Ino made sure to direct some of the punishment towards that arm. She noticed during the fight that Akumu favored his right arm when it came to holding the sword in general, and only used the armored left arm to help bring power and stability into his swings. If he had favored his left arm instead, it would have been harder for her to disable that arm, thus, allowing him to continue to use his sword.

As Akumu slowly reached down to pick up the sword, he found it felt heavier than normal. His arm was too tired, from the work he had put into using the sword earlier and the beating Ino made himself give it. He knew he would not have been able to use the sword very long from the beginning, as he still was not quite strong enough to be able to use it as a full-time weapon. It was still just too heavy for him.

Had this battle been a few years later, Akumu would have been able to have had enough time to get strong enough to fully deal with the weight of the blade. But, seeing how this was not the case, he decided it was time to put it away, and to continue the fight the old-_old_-fashioned way.

_**-Scene Break-**_

"That was close," Hinata said with a sigh of relief.

"More or less," Taiyou responded.

"What do you mean?"

"Well think of it this way: Akumu and his village is, more or less, a village full people who are like the one you call 'Shikamaru'."

"Yes, Akumu-kun has demonstrated his skills with his shadow to me before," Hinata blushed and looked away slightly when she said that, as if she was thinking back on something, "and he had said that the rest of his family could do what he can do."

"Well it's not just his family, but everyone in Kurai Village can do what he does. When people in his village turn ten, as a coming of age ceremony, they perform the _Rite of Binding,_" he stopped suddenly, as he tried to think of the easiest way to explain what the _Rite of Binding_ was, "It's like the summoning ability and a binding ability at the same time. They 'Summon' their shadows, and bind it to themselves. They then have full control over the shadow, but the process leaves the shadow with semi-intelligence. That is to say sometimes the shadow will act on its own, like when its master is in danger, but it will always obey its master. It's kinda like a familiar, or a summoned creature that's always around."

"I saw something like that a long time ago, during the last Exam. A ninja by the name of Gaara had a wall of sand that would protect him."

"Ah yes," Taiyou said as she brought up a good point, "The leader of the Sand Village. We know a bit about him. But where Akumu's shadow differs is that, where Gaara's sand protects him all the time, the shadows only work on their own when the master allows it or they are so in danger that their subconscious decides that it's time to let the shadow free to protect them. And unlike Gaara's perfect defense, the shadows can only stop so much force at one time and is only so fast. It's a little complicated, but all in all not that hard to understand."

_**-Scene Break-**_

The blade, which was lying on the floor, was quickly swallowed by Akumu's shadow, and was gone. He clinched his fist, it was sore, but it would work, "You know what?" he asked Ino, who had risen to her feet, "this has been going on long enough. How about we end this?"

Ino smiled as she began to charge, "Fine by me!"

Akumu smiled back at her as he began to charge back at her, all the while feeling quite a rush. He had not had this much fun fighting anyone in a long time. Unfortunately for him, this was not actual combat, and he could not kill Ino. Had he been able to kill her, this match would have been over much sooner. Although, he could not help but give Ino props, as he did not expect her to have such an interesting move up her sleeve. Regardless of the circumstances, Ino would probably not go down easy in real combat.

With a yell, they clashed. Quick punches and kicks from one would be avoided or blocked by the other. The crowd cheered at this fine example of brawling, which raged on for at least a minute. While they attacked each other, they struck up a slight conversation.

"You seem to be slowing down, 'Pretty-boy'!" Ino taunted.

"Nah, it just seems that way because battling with me has made you a better fighter, and that's saying a LOT!" Akumu retorted.

"Hah!" she laughed at him, "I can't wait to beat you in front of your family, and wipe that smug look off your face!"Akumu back-flipped away from Ino, but before Ino could follow after him, she heard him say something as he landed, "Speaking of family, I bet Tai can't wait to get home and tell his son about the mighty battle his Uncle Aku had."

The word "Son" echoed in Ino's mind. That word was like a hammer to her soul. She paused only for a second, but that was enough for Akumu, who quickly leapt forward towards Ino. He planted a strong right-jab into her stomach, sending her flying a few yards before slamming against the wall of the arena, cracking it slightly.

Ino's stomach was still a bit sore from the dropkick Akumu gave her moments before, and now it was in some serious pain. The brick wall that stopped her did not help at all. She coughed as she desperately tried to get up, but it was very hard since she could barely breathe.

Akumu did not move from his spot, for he wanted Ino to get back up. He wanted to see her reaction to what he had just told her. She may be a good ninja, but before she is a ninja she is a woman.

She finally got to her feet, but Ino's legs were quite shaky. She could barely speak, but she attempted, "What?! A son?!" That is, what she tried to say, but most of it just came out as wheezing, though Akumu knew what she was trying to say.

"Oh, definitely! Such a good little boy, he is. He can't be more than five now, I believe," he said with a matter-of-fact tone. He began to walk towards Ino.

Ino felt her eyes begin to water, thought, she was not sure if it was because of the pain or because of what Akumu had just told her.

"Oh crap, I wasn't supposed to tell you about that," he said with a genuinely sorry tone in his voice. He placed a hand of support on a shoulder of an Ino who was clearly heart-broken and gut-hurting. She looked up at him, as he continued, "Cheer up Ino, there is one thing that's good about all of this!"

"What?!" snapped back at him.

With a big grin, that quickly turned evil, he simply said, "I lied," as his comforting hand on her shoulder became a vice grip. He turned away from her, lifting her up over his head and throwing her back out into the middle of the arena.

She could not move away, as Akumu's grip was just too tight. It took a few seconds for Akumu to wind up his toss; Ino got a few good kicks in at Akumu's ribs just before she flew. As she soared in the air, Ino tried to twist her body as to land on her feet, but was barely able to do that for her stomach just hurt too much. She skidded to a stop, and had just enough time to put up a defensive stance as Akumu rushed her. She could hardly hold herself up, and she was not sure she could defend another attack.

About half way towards Ino, Akumu saw her smile, and before he could realize it, it was too late, again.

As she twisted in the air during her flight, Ino had thrown down a tight group of exploding tags, cleverly colored the same color as the earth, on the floor. As Akumu ran over them, they detonated in an explosion that made the tags she used at the beginning look like firecrackers.

"YES!" Ino screamed, and the crowd began to cheer.

The smoke was too thick for anyone in the crowd to see what had happened, but for a moment, Ino thought she saw Akumu's faint silhouette, which was now kneeling. But, something was different. She could not see any real details, but his right arm looked like it was deformed and had engorged itself to nearly three times its normal size and was trying to reach to the sky. There was also a sense of impending danger, but Ino pushed that out of her mind, ready to take whatever it was he had planned for her.

Seconds later, the breeze began to blow again, and it exposed a charred Akumu, whose limbs were all normal size, if only a little burned. His gauntlet gave a soft red glow, as the metal had been heated up slightly in the explosion.

With a grunt, Akumu slowly rose to his feet, smoke coming off of him slightly, "Wow," he said, "You're not pulling your punches at all, it seems. And, here I was going easy on you."

"I never asked you to go easy on me!" she screamed back. She was pissed.

"Trust me, if it was up to me I'd be going crazy on you right now, but I can't presently," he said as he rubbed his arm. It was still sore, so using his sword again was still out of the question.

She was going to ask him what he meant, when Akumu restarted his rush towards her. He was just upon her when he lost his balance. The explosion had slightly fractured one of Akumu's legs, and the furious running he was doing just made it worse. The pain surprised him, and he fell.

Falling forward, Akumu's forehead smashed right into Ino's forehead. Akumu fell to the ground face-first, as Ino was sent backwards, her eyes having rolled-back into her skull. They both hit the ground, and for a few moments neither of them moved at all.

One of the ninja's who was judging the match, jumped down into the arena, to get a better look at what had just happened. He cautiously walked over to both of the bodies, when he heard a moan, then words.

"Ow! What the hell is your large forehead made of?!" Akumu screamed as he lifted his head up off the ground, a bruise starting to form where their heads collided.

Ino tried to kick Akumu in the face, but she was so tired and sore, all she really did was softly plant her foot on his face, "I should ask you the same question!" she replied between pants. She winced, when she felt a slight sharp pain go through her foot.

In order to continue to fight back, Akumu started to gnaw on Ino's foot.

They both were fighting till the very end, and the judge decided enough was enough. The match was over, of that he was sure. Though, what he was not sure of was who the winner was. Technically, both were down and did not show any sign of getting up. That being the case, he would have to call it a draw. One fighter had to be able to continue the fight, for in real-life battle the last ninja standing would be able to kill off all others who were still down. He decided that a draw was the only choice, and he was about to signal such to Tsunade when he saw movement.

Akumu had barely lifted his upper-half up off the ground using his arms. He dragged himself closer to Ino, who was unable to do anything about it. As he got up to her, he reached into his belt-pouch, and drew his long, dark kunai and placed it just before Ino's throat.

The judge could see that he was straining to keep himself up on one arm as he mock-sliced Ino's throat. And with that, the match was over. The judge looked to the VIP-box, and yelled, "Honshitsu Akumu is the winner!"

The crowd cheered, as two groups of medics rushed into the arena and took Ino and Akumu to their respective waiting rooms to get fixed up after their awesome fight. As the crowd watched the medics take the fighters away, no one noticed Taiyou get up out of his seat and walk away.

_**-Scene Break-**_

Akumu moaned a bit as Taiyou and Yume pushed him up into a sitting position, on the small bench in the changing room of the area the medics had placed him on after they carried him out of the battlegrounds.

"She did a number on you, Big-Brother," Yume said as she helped him take his yukata off.

"Yeah, yeah," Akumu mumbled, "But, if it wasn't for this damned thing that mother put on my back when I got to this room before my match, that fight would've been quicker and easier. Honestly, I didn't expect to see her here."

As Yume pulled down his yukata, his bare back was exposed. Covering a large portion of his back was a large tag with runes that glowed ever so softly in the dark room.

"Very true," Taiyou said as he started to look over Akumu's fractured leg, "but if that was the case, then Hono'o and your mother wouldn't have let you fight Ino."

"You're quite right, Taiyou," another voice spoke.

Taiyou turned to see who it was, but Akumu and Yume knew who the voice belonged to. It was their mother, Nemuri. She walked up to Akumu, his back facing her, and she gently peeled of the tag attached to his back.

Prior to his battle with Ino, Hono'o requested that Nemuri put a strength-sealing tag on Akumu for a few reasons. First, Hono'o knew Akumu would forget to go easy the more and more he fought, and would probably go overboard and really hurt Ino. Secondly, she wanted Ino to have a fighting chance. Had Akumu's strength not been sealed, Ino's chance at winning would not have been as good. She wouldn't have had a zero chance, though, for nothing is impossible to a good ninja.

The moment the tag came all the way off, the runes faded, and Akumu exhaled a deep breath, like he had been holding a lungful of air all day. Steam came pouring out of his mouth as he exhaled, billowing around him for a few moments before fading away.

Instantly, Akumu felt like his old self again, and quickly jumped to his feet. He stretched backwards a bit, his back cracking slightly. His leg still hurt him, but he knew that now that he was back to his normal self, and with a little help from Taiyou, it would be fixed in no time.

"Thank you, mother," Akumu said as he turned to face her.

"You're welcome, Aku," she smiled as she folded up the tag, and put it in the pouch on her belt, "But don't think you have time to rest. You and Taiyou have work you need to do, and you have until Taiyou's match to do it in.

Yume quickly added in, "And I'm helping too!"

Akumu and Taiyou looked at each other, and then back to her, as they said in unison, "Leave it to us!"

**A/N****: -D-** Oh my god! Finally! After almost THREE YEARS, we've finally finished Chapter Four! Oh how nice it feels to finally finish it. I know it's taken a long ass time, but this was the boring "talking" chapter, mostly, and it was hard to be motivated to write.

That, compiled with the fact that I've moved an hour or so from my pervious home makes it hard to find time to get together with -G- to have us one of our writing sessions.

But we've since forced ourselves to do the boring part, and now that it's over and done with, we are starting to get motivated and hyped up, since the next few chapters are going to get more and more interesting!

Oh yes! For those who picked up here, and once upon a time read the previous chapters, you should definitely re-read them, for we changed a number of fine-details. Nothing too much, but enough.

**Translations:**

_Yume Honshitsu_ (Dream Essence)

_Hono'o Kyoretsu_ (Flame Intense)

_Sorakage_ ("Sky-Shadow", leader of Sora Village)

_Soragakure no Sato_ (Village Hidden in [the] Sky, will be later called Sora Village, for short)

_Nemuri Honshitsu_ (Sleep Essence)

_Kurayamikage _("Dark [lit: absence of light]-Shadow", leader of Kurai Village)

_Megami Seishin_ (Goddess Spirit)

_Akarikage_ ("Light-Shadow", leader of Hikari Village)

_Akumu no Jutsu_ (Nightmare Technique)

_Hitogoroshitetsu _(Nothing much, just a name fusing together the words for "Killer" and "Iron". If anything, it would come across as "Killer Iron". Akumu shortens it to just "_Hitetsu_")


End file.
